LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. IditNo.- 

Sliell 



UNJTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE SHINING WAY 




REV. H/T.>DAVIS, 



Author of 
"Solitary Places Made Glad," and ** Perfect Happiness." 




^^And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called 
The way of holiness.'''' — Isa. xxxv, 8. 



M. W. KNAPP, 

Publisher of Pentecostal Literature, Revivalist Office, 

Cincinnati, O. 

Copyright, 1900, by M. W. Knapp, Cincinnati, O. 






c^tbL. 



TO 

THE WIFE OF MY YOUTH, 

WHO 

FOR FORTY-THREE YEARS HAS WALKED BY 

MY SIDE THE PATHWAY OF LIFE, 

AND 

IS STILL WITH ME. 



h»H 



6483S 



PREFACE. 



Library of Cong re««l 

Two Copies Receivej) I 

][}^ 16 190C 

Copyright wiry 

'Zd ^mm COPY. 

2r\i C*py Delivtr«4 H 

•nO£K 0IVISK>H 

JUL 9 1900 



1HAVE been assured that my first book, " Solitary 
Places Made Glad," has done a great deal of good. 

My second book, "Perfect Happiness," has also 
been helpful to many. I have received the heartfelt 
thanks of a great many for writing it. 

I believe, therefore, that the pulpit may be supple- 
mented by the pen. 

I am sure the same Holy Spirit that led me to 
write my two former books, moved me to write the 
present volume. 

I send this book forth with the earnest prayer that 
it may lead many into the light of pardon, and many 
into the experience of entire sanctification. 

H. T. DAVIS. 

IviKCOi^N, Nebraska, March 17, 1900. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 

The Shining Way— What it Is, 7 

CHAPTER 11. 
Light Leading to the Shining Way, ii 

CHAPTER in. 
What the Shining Way is Not, . . . , • . 26 

CPIAPTER IV. 
Those On the Shining Way Seai^ed, 45 

CHAPTER V. 
The Rei^ation of the Ministry to The Shining Way, . 48 

CHAPTER VI. 
Those on the Shining Way Eree from The Carnai^ Mind, 56 

CHAPTER VII. 
Objections Answered, 68 

CHAPTER VIIL 

Those on the Shining Way Spirit-fii,i,ed, . . .72 

5 



6 Contents. 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE, 

Those on the Shining Way Spirit-fii^IvEd. — Continued, . 8i 

r 

CHAPTER X. 
Those on the Shining Way Power-Endued, . . .89 

CHAPTER XI. 

Those on the Shining Way Have the Satisfying Por- 
tion, 99 

CHAPTER XII. 

Those on the Shining Way Free erom The Trammei^S 

OF Faith, 104 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Those on the Shining Way, and the Higher Criticism, 121 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Shining Way an Experience, 131 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Shining Way a Life, 137 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Shining Way a Way of Joy, 144 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Shining Way a Way of Power, 163 



THE SHINING WAY. 



CHAPTER I. 
THE SHINING WAY— WHAT IT IS. 

THK most beautiful, splendid, useful, and permanent 
highway the world has ever known was the ''Appian 
Way," built by Appius Claudius Csecus, some three hun- 
dred years before the Christian era. 

Traces of that magnificent thoroughfare are to be 
seen to-day in different parts of Italy. It was built of 
soHd blocks of hexagonal stone, fitted together so nicely 
with the finest cement that the seams could scarcely 
be seen, and, when finished, appeared like a smooth, 
solid rock. The finest boulevards of Paris and New 
York City are not to be compared with this wonderful 
highway. It was three hundred and fifty miles long, 
and thirty-four feet wide, and on each side there was 
room for foot-passengers. It exhausted the treasury 
of the empire to build it. 

This magnificent highway united all Southern Italy 
with the capital of the Roman Empire. Over it news 
was borne by swift-fl^ang couriers from distant parts 
of the country to the capital. On its smooth pave- 
ment, in their gilded carriages, drawn by caparisoned 
horses, the flower of the Roman aristocracy took their 
pleasure-rides. The road itself was not only smooth 
and beautiful, but the scenery on either side was the 

7 



8 The Shining Way. 

most lovely and enchanting. For pleasure, nothing 
could equal a ride over this bewitching, high, and shin- 
ing way. On it the pleasure seekers of Italy found the 
greatest delight. 

*'It was over this broad, stone-paved highway that 
the thundering legions of Rome went forth to battle, 
and returned in triumph, laden with the spoils of the 
nations." 

With the advance of civilization, and all the valuable 
improvements of twenty-two hundred years, that 
splendid road, built for pedestrians and vehicles, has 
never been surpassed. Over it the commerce of the 
empire was borne. That magnificent highway, one of 
the marvels of the centuries, but faintly typifies the 
beauty, the splendor, the glory, the undying charm of 
the Shining Way of which I am to speak in this book. 

The prophet Isaiah describes it : "And an highway 
shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way 
of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over It ; but it 
shall be for those ; the wayfaring men, though fools, 
shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any 
ravenous beast shall go up thereon ; it shall not be found 
there; but the redeemed shall walk there." (Isaiah 
XXXV, 8, 9.) 

Job speaks of it: "There Is a path which no fowl 
knoweth, and which the vulture's e3^e hath not seen. 
The lion's whelps have not trodden It; nor the fierce 
Hon passed by it." (Job xxviii, 7, 8.) 

David tells of Its glory, and calls It "The beauty of 
holiness." (Psalm xxix^ 2.) 

Christ refers to its bliss when He says, "B'lessed 
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matt. 
v,8.) _ 

This Shining Way, then, Is the way of holiness. 



What It Is. 9 

And what is holiness? This is a great question; the 
most important of all questions; a question that rises 
in weight above every other question. 

Holiness is that state of man's spiritual nature in 
this life after actual sin has been pardoned and inborn 
depravity has been removed. 

This wonderful work, wrought in the heart by the 
Holy Ghost, checks the earthly and downward drift, 
and gives to all the afifections and desires an upward 
and heavenly trend. 

Paul calls depravity ^'the carnal mind.^' The carnal 
mind is the source of envy, jealousy, revenge, hatred, 
self-will, worldliness, and all other perverse dispositions. 

Holiness eliminates all these. When all these are 
gone, and perfect love fills the soul, the purified nature 
drifts, by its own affinities, towards the holy and the 
heavenly. On this Shining Way millions of the past 
have traveled to the skies. On it to-day millions are 
walking, breathing the pure atmosphere of heaven and 
the fragrance that comes wafted from the flowery plains 
of glory. 

On this beautiful, high, and Shining Way every child 
of God may walk. Strange that a way so beautiful is 
not traveled by a larger number. Get on this way, and 
the world will seem different. Everything will appear 
bright, beautiful, and cheerful. 

Some time ago I went out to one of my appoint- 
ments on the district to marry a couple. In the morn- 
ing, when leaving the place where I had been enter- 
tained, a young lady, the most consistent and faithful 
member of the Church in the community, said to me, 
in a low voice, "Pray for me, that I may be sanctified. 
I want to be sanctified." 

She had been passing through a fiery ordeal. So 



lo The Shining Way. 

great were her trials that she had even wished herself 
dead. When she made the above request, I said, in re- 
ply, "I will." 

Five weeks afterwards I went out to hold quarterly- 
meeting at that appointment. When that young lady 
met me at the door, and I looked into her smiling face, 
I knew well that the desire of her heart had been 
realized. The great change had come. Her counte- 
nance was radiant with light. Every lineament of her 
face beamed with unearthly brightness. She received 
the blessing at the hour of midnight, and so great was 
her joy that she felt she must arise, go downstairs, and 
tell her brother and sister. She waited, however, till 
morning, and then rushed downstairs and out into the 
kitchen, and, in exultations of joy, told them of her 
new-found treasure. In relating her experience to me, 
she said: ''It seemed that a stream of pure water ran 
through my soul, washing it perfectly clean, and now 
I feel all clean within." Before this change came she 
was not happy, and not satisfied at all with her con- 
dition in life, and wondered why God allowed her to 
suffer so much. But now all was changed. It seemed 
that she had entered a new world. Her friends looked 
different, her home looked different; everything was 
changed. There had been a marvelous transformation. 
The change, however, was not in her friends, nor in 
her environments, but in herself. Said she, "I am the 
happiest woman on earth; I have the most beautiful 
home in the world; I have everything that heart can 
wish." She had reached the Shining Way. 



CHAPTER II. 
LIGHT LEADING TO THE SHINING WAY. 

THK measure of light is the measure of responsibil- 
ity. So much light, so much responsibility; no 
more, no less. The heathen, who have never had the 
gospel, have a law written upon their own hearts by 
the Spirit of God. As Paul says, "Their conscience 
also bearing witness, and their thoughts accusing or 
else excusing one another." (Rom. ii, 15.) 

God has given a measure of light to all men. The 
heathen will be judged by the law written upon their 
own hearts. Those living in a Christian land will be 
judged by the Word of God. "As many as have sinned 
without law," says Paul, "shall also perish without law; 
and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged 
by the law." (Rom. II, 12.) 

If the heathen refuses to obey the law written upon 
his own heart by the Divine Spirit, he will be lost. If, 
on the other hand, he scrupulously lives up to all the 
light he has, he will be saved. If we who live in a 
Christian land refuse to follow the light given us in 
the gospel, we shall be lost. But If we live up to this 
light, we shall be saved. If we would be saved, there- 
fore, we must walk in the light given us. 

"If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we 
have fellowship one with another, and the blood of 
Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." (i John 

II 



12 The Shining Way. 

God has not left us in moral darkness. He has 
given us sufficient light to guide us safely through the 
mazes of this dark and dangerous world, and to lead 
us to a world of eternal light and glory beyond. 

God guides us by His Word and by His Spirit. 
David says, "Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, 
and afterward receive me to glory." (Psalm Ixxiii, 24.) 
Again says the Almighty, "I will guide thee with mine 
eye." (Psalm xxxii, 8.) 

And again, *'The meek will He guide in judgment, 
and the meek will He teach His way" (Psalm xxv, 9) ; 
but God guides especially by His Spirit. The Holy 
Ghost is the Enlightener — the Revealer of light and 
truth. 

Christ says, "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come. 
He will guide you into all truth." (John xvi, 13.) 

Again says Christ: "When Pie," that is, the Holy 
Ghost, "is come. He will reprove the world of sin, and 
of righteousness, and of judgment." The marginal has 
it "convince." "He will convince the world of sin." 

The first office of the Holy Ghost is to produce in 
the heart of the sinner, conviction. "'He will convince 
the world of sin." The Holy Ghost unconditionally con- 
victs every man of sin, and of the need of pardon, and 
right living. When the light of conviction shines upon 
the heart of the sinner, and that light is followed, it leads 
immediately to repentance. True repentance includes 
sorrow for sin, renunciation of all sin, and a determina- 
tion to sin no more. 

Now, when a person is deeply convicted of sin, 
heartily repents of all sin, has deep, heartfelt sorrow 
for having sinned against God and high heaven, re- 
nounces all sin, resolves, by God's grace, never to sin 



Light Leading to the Shining Way. 13 

again, and unconditionaily surrenders himself to God, 
then he is on believing ground, and it is very easy for 
him to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon, 
and believing the Holy Ghost will attest to his heart 
the great fact of pardon. He now has shining into his 
heart a new light — a light he never had before — the 
light of salvation. ''The Spirit itself beareth witness 
with our spirit, that we are the children of God." (Rom. 
viii, 16.) So Paul says, ''Being justified by faith, we 
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

That is a most wonderful event. I never shall forget 
that wonderful event in my own life. It stands out be- 
fore me, in the history of the past, like a great mountain 
peak towering far above all the plains below. 

The carnal mind is that which was with us when we 
were born, and for which we are not accountable. It 
is inherited depravity. This inherited depravity is seen 
in the little child long before actual sin has been com- 
mitted. Every child is born in a justified relation to 
God, but enters the world with inbred sin. If the child 
dies in infancy, the Holy Ghost unconditionally cleanses 
away inherited depravity, sanctifies the little soul, and 
fits it for heaven ; for the "free gift which came upon 
all men unto justification of life" reaches the child, 
and so, through the atoning merits of Christ, the child 
goes straight to heaven. No child Is ever lost. Our 
children that have died in Infancy are all safely housed 
/in glory. 

If the child lives to the years of accountability, and 
commits sin, then there Is added to Inherited depravity 
'actual sin and g-uilt. 

In the work of pardon and regeneration we receive 
the forgiveness of these personal sins, and the washing 



14 



The Shining Way 



away of personal guilt, and the Divine life is planted 
in the soul. But that "dark, unpleasant, troublesome 
thing" that Paul calls the carnal mind^ is left. Re- 
generation does not change the carnal mind. It is 
there after conversion. It is overshadowed and over- 
powered, and may not be felt for days or months after 
regeneration, and young Christians feel at first that they 
will not know war an}- more. 

But sooner or later they feel the uprisings of the 
carnal mind — anger, hatred, revenge, jealousy, pride, 
etc. — and feeling these, they are greatly troubled, and 
often conclude that they have never been converted. 
The fact is, they are converted and saved; but that 
which was with them when they were born, and for 
w^hich they are not accountable, is still with them. 

The Christian is brought to see at length, by the 
light of the Holy Ghost, that there is something more 
for him that he has not received, and often there comes 
into the heart a longing for that which he does not 
possess. 

The Holy Ghost unconditionally convinces every 
Christian of the need of heart-purity, and if he walks 
in the light given him by the Spirit, he will step right 
over, as many do, into the land of perfect love. 

The first thing included in entire sanctificatlon is 
conviction. Mr. Wesley says they are ''fully con- 
vinced of inbred sin by a far deeper and clearer con- 
viction than they experienced before justification." 
(Plain Account, page 80.) 

As In justification, so in sanctificatlon, conviction is 
the first step. It is not a conviction of g'uilt; it is not 
a conviction that brings condemnation. This we had 
before we were converted, when we felt the wrath of 



Light Leading to the Shining Way. 15 

God hanging over us. But this conviction in the heart 
of the behever that precedes entire sanctification is a 
conviction of want, a conviction that there are things 
in the heart that ought not to be there, and that should 
be removed. It is a deep hunger for something we 
have not, and for w^hich there is an earnest, longing 
desire. 

Amanda Smith, the colored evangelist, is one of 
the noblest saints of God on the earth. Bishop Malla- 
lieu received one of the greatest inspirations of his life 
under her teachings. Bishop Newman, and other great 
men (in our Church) have sat with delight at her feet, 
and drank in from her the deep things of God. Her 
conversion was wonderful, so clear and powerful. In 
seeking religion she had a hard struggle. She was 
about to give up, and never pray again. Just then a 
voice whispered in her ear, and said, 'Tray once more." 
And in an instant, she said, "I will." 

Then another voice said to her, "Do n't do it." 

She replied, "Yes ; I will." 

"It seemed to me," said she, "the emphasis was on 
the 'will ;* and I felt it from the crown of my head clear 
through me, *I will.' And I got on my feet and said, 
'I will pray once more, and if there is any such thing 
as salvation, I am determined to have it this afternoon 
or die.' I put the kettle on^ set the table, and went 
into the cellar, and got on my knees to pray and die, 
and I did not care. I was so miserable ! I went into 
the cellar, and I was going to die; and O, hallelujah! 
what a dying it was ! I got on my knees, and O, 
what a conflict! How the darkness seemed to gather 
round me, and in my desperation I looked up and 
said, 'O Lord, I have come down here to die, and I 



1 6 The Shining Way. 

must have salvation this afternoon or death. If You 
send me to hell, I will go, but convert my soul !' I 
prayed three times, using the same words. Then, in 
my desperation, I looked up and said, 'O Lord, if 
Thou wilt help me^ I will believe Thee !' and in the 
act of telling God I would, I did. O, the peace and 
joy that flooded my soul! The burden rolled away. I 
felt it when it left me; and a flood of light and joy 
swept through my soul such as I had never known 
before. Then I sprang to my feet. All around was 
light. I was new. 

''I looked at my hands; they looked new. I took 
hold of myself, and said, 'Why, I am new; I am new 
all over !' I ran up out of the cellar, and walked up and 
down the kitchen-floor. Praise the Lord ! There seemed 
to be a halo of light all over me. The change was so 
real and so thorough that I have often said that if I 
had been as black as ink, or as green as grass, or as 
w^hite as snow, I would not have been frightened. I 
went into the drawing-room. We had a large mirror 
that went from the floor to the ceiling, and I went and 
looked in to see if anything had transpired in my 
color, because something wonderful had taken place 
inside of me, and it really seemed to me it was out- 
side too ; and as I looked in the glass, I cried out, 
'Hallelujah! I have got reHgion ! Glory to God! I 
have got religion!' I was wild with delight and joy." 

I have given this account of her conversion to show 
that Amanda Smith's conversion was genuine, clear, 
and thorough. The evidence of her conversion was 
as bright as the noonday sun. 

Now, after this, while living in the clear light of 
pardon, and with the full consciousness that she was 



Light Leading to the Shining Way. 17 

a child of God, she was just as clearly and powerfully 
convicted for sanctification as she had been for par- 
don and regeneration, I give her own language: 

"One morning I was over my wash-tub. My heart 
was sore. O what a night I had had! I felt I could 
not bear any more, and I said, 'O L^ord, is there no 
way out of this?' And as I wept and prayed, the 
Lord sent Mother Jones. I did not want her to 
catch me crying. I did not believe In telling all my 
little troubles; but there she was, and I was so full 
and had suppressed so long that I could hold in no 
longer. 

"*Well, Smith,' she said, 'how do you do?' 

" 'O Mother Jones ! I am nearly heartbroken. 
James is so unkind;' — and I began to tell all my good 
works: how I did this, and how I did that, and all I 
could to make things pleasant, and yet he was so 
unkind.' 

" 'Well,' she said, 'that is just the way Jon'es used 
to do me; but when God sanctified my soul. He gave 
me enduring grace, and that is what you need. Get 
sanctified, and then you will have enduring grace.' 

" 'Why/ I thought, 'is that what sanctification 
means? Enduring grace? That is just what I need? 
I have always been planning to get out of trials instead 
of asking God for grace to endure.' 

"O how I did want her to go ! After a while she 
went. The minute she shut the door I turned the 
key, and ran into the bedroom, and got on my knees 
and prayed: 'O Lord, santtify my soul, and give me 
enduring grace ! O Lord, sanctify my soul, and give 
me enduring grace !' 

"Sometime after this I was reading the fifth 



HE Shining 



'AY. 



chapter of Matthew; and when I got to the eleventh 
and twelfth verses, I said, 'My experience does not 
come up to this/ 'Blessed are ye when men shall 
revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner 
of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and 
be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in 
heaven.' I can not rejoice when any one lies on me; 
it 's no use, I can't do it. 

''One day one of the dearest friends I had, as I 
thought, told a real lie on me. It made quite a stir. 
I wondered where all the coolness came about in dif- 
ferent directions, but did not know the real cause. 
So I made up my mind I would go and ask the parties 
what the matter was. I got down and prayed that 
the Lord vrould give me the right spirit, and not let 
me get vexed, and not let the parties get vexed. So 
off I started a little after nine o'clock in the morning. 
I walked until about tw^o o'clock in the afternoon, and 
found myself about as near the truth when I stopped 
as when I started. The first place I called, I said to 
the friend, calling her b}^ nam.e : 'I hear so and so. I 
came to ask you what about it.' 

" 'All I know,' she replied, 'is what John B. said, 
that Mary S. said that you said that I said that she 
said,' — and so on. 

"Well, I w^ent to the next parties. They said the 
same thing. 'Well, all I know about it Is, Ann So- 
and-so said that you said that she said that I said 
that they said,' etc. I went the round, then started 
home, so ashamed and disgusted. 

"As soon as I got home, I took off my wraps, 
went down into the cellar, and got down on my knees^ 
where I always went to settle hard difficulties, and I 



Light Leading to the Shining Way. 19 

said, *0 Lord, if You will help me, I will never, while 
I live, go after another lie.' " 

Where is the converted man or woman that has 
not felt, as Amanda Smith did, the need of enduring 
grace — grace to endure persecution, misrepresentation, 
lies, slander, abuse of every kind, and at the same 
time keep perfectly sweet ? Enduring grace — that 's 
an excellent definition of sanctification. Well, Amanda 
Smith was just as clearly and powerfully sanctified 
as she had been converted. Then God sent her out 
as a flaming evangel, and thousands have been saved 
through her instrumentality. 

And as it was with Amanda Smith, so it usually 
is with all who are sanctified. Of course, there are 
exceptions ; but the general rule is, those who have 
been sanctified had this deep conviction of the need 
and want of sanctification — a conviction, deeper, more 
pungent, more powerful, more biting, than that which 
they had before conversion. 

I never shall forget my conviction when a sinner, 
when I felt the wrath of God hanging over my head. 
And I never shall forget my conviction of the need 
and want of holiness. I shall praise God forever that 
I at length yielded to that conviction, sought and found 
the priceless boon of perfect love. 

Thousands all along the ages have been convicted 
of sin and the need of pardon. They had the light, 
showing 'them their need and duty; but they refused 
to walk in the light given them. Consequently they 
lived in sin and died in sin, and went out of the world 
in sin. 

King Agrippa was convicted — deeply and power- 
fully convicted — so much so that he cried out, "Al- 



20 The Shining Way. 

most thou persuadest me to be a Christian." He had 
the light, but he refused to walk in the light. Our 
Savior said, *'If, therefore, the Hght that is in thee be 
darkness, how great is that darkness !" (Matt, vi, 23.) 
He also said: "Yet a little while is the Hght with you. 
Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come 
upon you. . . . While ye have light, believe in the 
light, that ye may be the children of light." Qohn 

xii, 35. 3Q 

When the light of conviction shines into the heart 
of the sinner, showing him the necessity of pardon, 
if he follows that light he will at once step right into 
the kingdom of light and become a child of God. But 
if he refuses to yield to his convictions, turns away 
from the light, the light which Is in him will become 
darkness. Conviction may leave him, indifference take 
possession of his soul, and the desire for religion may 
never return ; or If It does, he ma}^ only have time to 
say, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and 
my soul Is not saved." 

It Is a dangerous thing to refuse to walk In the 
light God gives us. It Is dangerous beyond the power 
of human language to describe to trifle with the Holy 
Ghost. The keenest pang that pierces the heart of 
King Agrlppa, the scorplon-sting that sinks deepest 
into his soul, methlnks, Is the thought that 'T was 
almost a Christian." "Almost, but lost." "As Paul 
reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment 
to come, Felix trembled and answered, "Go thy way 
fo-r this time ; when I have a convenient season, I will 
call for thee." (Acts xxiv, 25.) 

Felix had the light. He refused to w^alk In the 
light, and the light w^hich was In him became darkness, 



Light Leading to the Shining Way. 21 

and he went down amid the gathering gloom, to join 
Agrippa in the night that shall know no morning. 

In the early history of Nebraska, during a great 
revival at Nebraska City, a distinguished lawyer was 
powerfully convicted. He borrowed of the pastor 
Wesley's sermons, and read them with avidity. He 
saw his duty, admitted that he ought to be a Chris- 
tian. But he turned away from the light, refused to 
do what the Holy Spirit told him he should do, and 
from that time on grew worse and worse, and finally 
died cursing the God who had created, and the Savior 
who had redeemed him. 

God gives every man a chance to be saved. He 
enlightens every man that cometh into the world. 
If he walks in the light given him, he may be an angel. 
If he turns away from the light, he may become a 
demon. 

The choice is given to every one, either to live 
with God and Christ and the angels, or wail with the 
lost where hope is a stranger and where mercy never 
can come. 

Now, as God awakens every sinner sometime dur- 
ing his life, showing him the need of pardon and sal- 
vation, and as the sinner may either walk in the light 
given or reject it — if he follows the light, pardon and 
salvation will be the result; If he turns from the light, 
darkness and death will follow. 

So the Holy Ghost shows to every Christian, sooner 
or later, the necessity and desirableness of holiness. 
As the Holy Ghost unconditionally convicts every 
sinner of the need of pardon, so the Holy Ghost uncon- 
ditionally convicts every believer of the need of holi- 
ness. ^'Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." 



2 2 The Shining Way. 

When the Holy Spirit convicts the beUever of the 
need of hoHness, the believer may either reject the 
light or walk in the light. If he walks in the Hght 
given, as many do, holiness will be the result. He 
will step at once right over into the land of perfect 
love. Then he will be a greater power than ever for 
good in the world. He will be a Hving epistle, known 
and read of all men. But if he refuses to walk in the 
light that clearly shines upon his pathway, turns aside, 
or fixes up for himself a way in which he is determined 
to walk, regardless of the teachings of the Holy Ghost 
and the Word of God, he will lapse into formalism, 
having the form only, without the power of godliness. 

I believe there are thousands in the Churches to- 
day who have met the issue : the light has shined into 
their hearts, but they refused to walk in the light 
given, they would have nothing to do with the subject 
of holiness, and the consequence is, they are simply 
nominal Christians, and know nothing at all of the 
joy, the power, the sweetness, the richness, the unfad- 
ing charm of a holy life. 

When the light shines in the heart of the believer, 
showing him that it is his high privilege to be pure 
in heart and Hfe, then he sees that if he walks in the 
hght given, some things will have to be done, and some 
things will have to be given up, that perhaps he never 
dreamed of before. The issue is before him. The 
testing-time has come. And right at this point many 
fail. They are not wilHng to pay the price. But the 
price must be paid if the rich boon would be ours. 

Years ago a great revival was in progress in the 
State of Ohio. Penitents were at the altar seeking 
pardon, and believers were there seeking holiness. 



Light Leading to the Shining Way. 23 

A wealthy farmer, one of the leading members of the 
Church, was at the altar, earnestly pleading for a pure 
heart. All at once he arose from the altar, deliberately 
walked back, and took his seat right by the door. 
When the meeting closed, he slipped out of the house 
without saying a word to any one. 

The meeting increased in interest and power. Two 
days and nights passed away, but the good old farmer 
did not put in an appearance. None of the members 
had seen or heard anything from him. Then many 
began to wonder what was the matter. Some feared 
he had become ofifended. Some thought he must be 
sick, and various were the conjectures concerning 
him. This farmer had been in the habit of selling his 
corn to the distillers for the purpose of making 
whisky. He felt there was nothing wrong in selling 
his corn for the highest price he could get, and the 
distillers usually paid a little more than any one else. 
He had several thousand bushels in his cribs that he 
intended to sell in a few days to the distillers. 

The third night after he had so unceremoniously 
left the church, he was back in his place at the meet- 
ing. His countenance was radiant. Everybody could 
see in his face that a great change had come over him. 
He arose and said: "During the past two days and 
nights I have had a great controversy with the Al- 
mighty. When I bowed at this altar a few nights ago, 
seeking holiness, something seemed to say to me, 
'If you get the blessing of holiness, what will you do 
with all this corn of yours? You won't dare sell it 
to the distillers.' I tried to pray, but every time I 
attempted it, the same searching question was put 
to me, 'What will you do with all that corn?' I knew 



24 The Shining Way. 

there was no sale for my corn, only at the distiller's, 
and I was greatly in need of some money. I found 
I was making no headway at all at the altar, so I arose, 
went back to the door, and sat down; and when the 
meeting closed I hurried home. All that night, and 
all next day, and all next night, the controversy went 
on between the Almighty and myself about my corn. 
This morning I went down back of one of my corn- 
cribs, kneeled down, and said, Xord, I will never rise 
from my knees until this matter is settled/ The 
question, with greater force than ever, came to me, 
*What will you do with all this corn?' Then I said, 
Xord, I will let every bushel of corn in these cribs 
rot before I will sell one bushel to the distillers.' 
These words had hardly escaped from my lips till it 
seemed I was In paradise. God flooded my whole 
being with light and joy and peace. I rose from my 
knees, ran up to my house shouting the high praises 
of God. And, brethren, I will never sell another 
bushel of corn to the distillers while I live.'' 

In less than a year corn became scarce, the price 
went up, and he sold all his corn for double the amount 
he could have gotten had he sold it to the distillers. 

If we walk in the Hght, as God is in the Hght, we 
may be led right up to where we shall be called to 
do something that is as hard for us to do as it was 
for that farmer to say, 'T will let every bushel of corn 
rot in these cribs before I will sell one bushel to the 
distillers." 

When the full and glad surrender of all Is made 
and the consecration becomes perfect, entire, and 
eternal, then faith takes hold on God, the cleansing 



Light Leading to the Shining Way. 25 

blood is applied, and the sin-stained heart is made 
whiter than snow. The light comes streaming down 
into the soul, flooding it with a joy and peace akin to 
the joy of the angels in glory. 
Then the saved soul can sing: 

"The cleansing stream I see, I see! 
I plunge and, O, it cleanseth me ! 
O, praise the Ivord, it cleanseth me ! 
It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me!" 



CHAPTER III * 
WHAT THE SHINING WAY IS NOT. 

WHILE the term "perfection," ''holiness," and 
''entire sanctification" each has a shade of 
meaning peculiar to itself, these terms are all used in 
the Scriptures interchangeably. 

Mr. Wesley preferred the term "perfection" to any 
of the other terms that relate to the subject of holiness. 
When he wrote his marvelous work on this subject, 
he called it "Christian Perfection." 

In the present chapter I desire to carefully examine 
this Bible and distinctive Methodist doctrine, and I 
hope to make it so simple and plain that the smallest 
child can understand it. If understood, none can rea- 
sonably object to it. It is really wonderful how much 
is said in the Bible of the subject of perfection. 

God said to Abraham : "I am the Almighty God. 
Walk before Me, and be thou perfect." (Gen. xvii, I.) 
Mo5es said to the Israelites of old, "Thou shalt be 
perfect with the Lord thy God." (Deut, xviii, 13.) 
"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name 
was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, and 
one that feared God and eschewed evil." (Job i, i.) 
David says, "Mark the perfect man, and behold the 
upright ; for the end of that man is peace." (Ps. 
xxxvii, 2)7^ Christ says in His beautiful and inimitable 



*This chapter is taken frota my first book, "Solitary Places Made Glad." 
It is a link in the chain of the arguraent, hence introduced here, 

26 



What the Shining Way Is Not. 27 

Sermon on the Mount, "Be ye therefore perfect, even 
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 
(Matt. V, 48.) Paul said to the Colossians, "Stand 
perfect and complete in all the will of God." (Col. 
iv, 12.) He constantly pointed believers to the beau- 
tiful heights of perfect love. He had a longing desire 
to lead them up to this high plain. The height of his 
ambition was to "present every man perfect in Christ 
Jesus." He said to the Corinthians, "Be perfect." 
(2 Cor. xiii, ii.) The "central idea of Christianity," 
says Bishop Peck, "is perfect love." It is the sun, 
around which all the satellites revolve, and, moving 
around this great center, they rejoice in its broad, warm, 
genial, and life-imparting smile. 

The design of the great scheme of human redemp- 
tion was to bring man from a state of sin and pollution 
to a state of purity and happiness. "Christ gave him- 
self for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, 
and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of 
good works." (Tit. xi, 14.) And the design of the 
gospel is not accomplished in us until we are raised to 
this high, holy, and happy state, where our peace flows 
like a river, and our righteousness is as the waves of 
the sea. 

In all ages there has been the most bitter oppo- 
sition to the doctrine of holiness. There are many 
reasons for this. Holiness, or Christian perfection, is 
the most unrelenting, untiring, uncompromising, and 
powerful enemy the empire of Satan has ; hence he 
puts forth every effort within his power to make the 
doctrine distasteful to men, in order that he may 
break its influence and power, and thereby save his 
own kingdom from wreck and ruin. 



28 The Shining Way. 

In referring to the doctrine of Christian perfection, 
Mr. Wesley says, "This is the word which God will 
always bless, and which the devil peculiarly hates; 
therefore he is constantly stirring up both his own 
children and the children of God against it." 

Another reason why so man}^ object to the doc- 
trine of holiness is because it is not rightly understood. 
There are multitudes in the Church who know but 
Httle about the doctrine of Christian perfection as 
taught by John Wesley, the standard authors of our 
Church, and the Bible. 

If the doctrine were thoroughly examined and 
thoroughly understood, I am confident the objections, 
to an extent at least, would give way. 

Many object to the doctrine because of the incon- 
sistencies of those who have professed it. 

We must admit that many who have professed 
holiness have not lived up to their professions, and 
that the doctrine has suffered very materially from its 
inconsistent and unwise advocates. Their profession 
(and their acts have not been in harmony at all. I 
think, however, that a careful examination of the 
matter will convince any unprejudiced mind that the 
proportion of inconsistent professors of holiness is no 
greater than the proportion of inconsistent professors 
of justification. It must be admitted that many in all 
ages who have professed only conversion, have not 
lived up to their profession, and the cause of religion 
has suffered greatly from such inconsistent professors. 
If, therefore, we discard the doctrine of Christian per- 
fection because of the inconsistencies of many who 
have professed it, for the very same reason we must 
discard the doctrine of justification; in fact, for the 



What the Shining Way Is Not. 29 

very same reason we must discard all religion, and 
take our stand on the broad platform of infidelity. 
Are we ready to take this rash step? 

I do not pin my faith to the actions of any man. 
No wise man, it seems, would do such a foolish thing 
as that. My faith rests on God's Word alone. Let 
God be true, though every man may be a liar. To the 
law, therefore, and to the testimony, to the Word of God, 
and not to the actions of men, do we appeal. 

That Christian perfection is attainable is proved to 
my mind beyond the shadow of a doubt by the many 
passages of Scripture quoted in the forepart of this 
chapter. 

What is Christian perfection? To answer this 
question satisfactorily it will be necessary to treat the 
subject negatively — to show what it is not; and in 
showing what it is not we may be able, perhaps, be- 
fore we get through to show what it Is. Touching this 
doctrine, the ideas of many are vague and very much 
confused. 

1. It Is not absolute perfection. The highest, the 
brightest, the sweetest, the loveliest angel that ranges 
the fields of light and glory is not absolutely perfect. 
Absolute perfection belongs alone to God. God is 
absolutely perfect in degree; Christians are perfect in 
kind only. 

2. It is not angelic perfection. Angels are a higher 
order of intelligences than men. Angels never make 
mistakes, never err, never commit blunders. Their 
love burns with an intensity, and their services are 
performed with a precision that are not possible for 
mortals. They have none of the infirmities of fallen 
human nature. While the sad effects of the fall cling 



3© The Shining Way. 

to these bodies of ours, we do not claim that it is pos- 
sible for us to be as perfect as the angels in heaven. 
But when this corruptible shall put on incorruption ; 
when this mortal shall put on immortaHty ; when these 
bodies, sown in dishonor and weakness, shall be 
raised in power and glory, then we shall be perfect 
as the angels. 

3. It is not the perfection Adam had before the 
fall. Before man fell, all his faculties and powers were 
perfect. His intellectual, physical, and moral powers 
were all complete. Sin has marred and dwarfed all 
these powers. With the intellect marred and dwarfed 
by sin, with all the physical powers impaired by evil, 
it is not possible, since these are the mediums through 
which the soul now operates, to be as perfect as if 
these powers had never S'ufifered from. sin. So it is not 
claimed, nor does the Bible promise the perfection 
Adam had before the fall. We must be content, there- 
fore, with the perfection taught us in God's Word. 
And God's Word does not promise to us absolute per- 
fection, nor angelic perfection, nor Adamic perfection, 
but Christian perfection. 

4. It is not a perfection of the head. Nowhere in 
all the range of God's Word is there a single promise 
that God will make us perfect in judgment. The only 
perfection promised in the Bible is the perfection of 
love. Mr. Wesley says : "Another ground of these and 
a thousand mistakes is the not considering deeply that 
love is the highest gift of God. There is nothing higher 
in religion ; there is, in effect, nothing else." Christian 
perfection is the loving God, with all the heart and all 
the soul and all the strength. This is the highest spir- 
itual mountain-peak that can be gained here on the 
earth. 



What the Shining Way Is Not. 31 

5. Christian perfection does not imply a faultless 
life. We are commanded to be blameless, but not 
faultless. 

We shall be liable to make mistakes, commit er- 
rors, and make blunders as long as we live in a body 
marred and dwarfed by sin. An error in judgment 
may lead to an error in act. God goes back of the act 
to the motive that prompted the act. It is the intent 
that makes the crime. A man may be a murderer 
without ever having taken the life of a fellow-being. 
He may have desired to do so, and that constitutes 
the crime. On the other hand, he may have actually 
taken the life of a man, and still not be a murderer. 
He may have accidentally taken the life of his fellow- 
being. Hence Christ says, "Judge not, that ye be not 
judged." The Bible nowhere promises us a perfection 
that will free us from mistakes. While Christian per- 
fection does not admit of any sin, inward or outward, 
properly so called, it does admit of a consciousness of 
infirmities and shortcomings and great weaknesses. 
These they often deplore in the deepest humility. 
These innocent mistakes and infirmities all need the 
blood of atonement, and we rejoice and praise God 
that the blood of atonement covers them all, and more 
than meets every demand. Christian perfection ad- 
mits of many infirmities, but not one sin. 

6. It is not freedom from temptation. If you ex- 
pect to be saved from temptation in this life you are 
expecting something you will never realize. The serv- 
ant is not greater than his Lord. If it were possible 
for us to reach a point where we could not be tempted 
we should be greater than our Lord was. *'He w^as 
tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." 



32 The Shining AVay. 

It is no sin to be tempted. The sin lies in our yield- 
ing to the temptation. Mr. Dow says, *'We can not 
prevent the buzzards flying over our heads, but we 
can keep them from making nests in our hair." Here 
on earth is the battle-field; here we are waging a 
warfare. Can there be war without conflict? Can 
there be conflict without enemies? Of all persons on 
the earth, those who are the most holy are the most 
exposed to temptation. Those who are the most holy 
are placed in the front of the battle. God has chosen 
them as His vanguard. They are the ones who make 
assaults upon the enemy. If they are in the front and 
lead the charge, they are, more than any others, ex- 
posed to the fiery missiles of the foe. At the pure 
Satan will hurl his sharpest arrows. Against them 
he will level his heaviest artillery. One holy person 
cast down is better for the empire of Satan than a 
whole regiment of ordinary Christians. One who is 
now in heaven once said, ''As certain as night follows 
day, so certain will the black-angel persecution follow 
holiness." 

A man who had recently come into the experience 
of perfect love vuider the ministrations of Rev. Mr. 
Caughey, the great evangelist, went to him and said: 
"I do n't understand this. I never had such severe 
temptations in my life as I have had since I received 
this blessing." "O," said Mr. Caughey, ''that is not 
at all strange. It takes ten devils to watch you now, 
where it took only one when you were in a weak and 
sickly state." The less religion Christians have, the 
less trouble they have with Satan. Satan is satisfied 
with weak, worldly-minded Christians, and seldom 
troubles them. If we have no severe temptations, we 



What the Shining Way Is Not. 33 

may well suspect the genuineness of our religion. A 
man once said, "I am opposed to revivals on principle." 
Another one said, *'I am opposed to this doctrine of 
holiness." Are not such men sound asleep? The 
devil can do almost anything with a man when he gets 
him fast asleep. A man once dreamed he was travel- 
ing, and came to a little church, and on the cupola of 
that church was a devil fast asleep. He went on a 
little further, and he came to a log-cabin, and it was 
surrounded by devils, all wide awake. He was sur- 
prised, and asked for an explanation. One of the little 
imps said: *'I will tell you. The fact is, that whole 
Church back there is asleep, and one devil can take 
care of all the members, and sleep at the same time; 
but here in this cabin are two holy, wide-awake per- 
sons — a man and a woman — and they have more in- 
fluence and power than that whole Church." The 
greater the effort put forth on the part of the Chris- 
tian to live near God and save souls, the greater will 
be the effort on the part of Satan to hedge up his 
way and thwart all his commendable plans. Every 
step we take from here to the throne of God will be 
hotly contested by the devil. 

Then God will have a tried people. Job said, 
"When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." 
(Job xxiii, 10.) David said, "Thou, O God, hast proved 
us ; Thou hast tried us as silver is tried." (Ps. Ixiv, 10.) 
Solomon says, "The fining pot is for silver, and the 
furnace for gold; but the Lord trieth the hearts." 
(Prov. xvii, 3.) God said of His ancient people, "I 
have chosen thee In the furnace of affliction." (Isa. 
xlviii, 10.) "I will refine them as silver is refined, and 
will try them as "gold is tried; they shall call on My 

3 



34 The Shining Way. 

name, and I will hear them." (Zech. xill, 9.) James 
says, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; 
for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life." 
(James i, 12.) He does not say, Blessed is the man 
that has temptation, but. Blessed is the man that 
endures, that stands firm, is loyal to God during the fiery 
temptation. That man will at last receive a crown, 
before the beauty and splendor of which the crowns 
of the kings and emperors of earth will pale and sink 
into utter insignificance. It is said that Napoleon 
once ordered a coat of mail. When the artisan com- 
pleted it, he delivered it to the emperor. The emperor 
ordered him to put it on himself. Then Napoleon 
drew his large navy revolver, and fired shot after shot 
at the man in the armor. It stood the severe test, and 
the artisan received from Napoleon a large reward. 
So if we stand the severe tests that will be applied to 
us here, great will be our reward hereafter. 

God's method with His children here is found in 
Daniel xii, 10. ''Many shall be purified and made 
white and tried." That is God's method. Purified, 
made white, then tried. Many are purified, but when 
the tests are applied give way. 

"A few mornings ago," said a lady, "I placed a 
clean, white platter in the stove-baker, to warm it. 
By accident the door was closed, and the dish became 
very hot. When I removed it, a scum of grease had 
covered nearly the whole surface. The heat had 
brought it out. I was surprised to see so much filth 
on what had appeared a perfectly clean white platter. 
I wondered if such a scum of sin would come to 
the surface if I should be tried as by fire. What a 



What the Shining Way Is Not. 35 

s?afe that must be when no spot will appear, though 
a white heat is applied to bring out the defects!" 

7. Christian perfection is not regeneration. It is 
a state of grace above and beyond conversion. Paul 
said to the Christians at Corinth: "And I, brethren, 
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto 
babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not 
with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, 
neither yet are ye now able. For ye are yet carnal; 
for whereas there is among you envying and strife and 
divisions, are ye not carnal?" (i Cor. iii, 1-3.) 
"Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let 
us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and 
spirit, perfecting hoHness in the fear of God." 
(2 Cor. vii, I.) 

Christian perfection is the perfecting, the completing, 
of the work which was begun at conversion. To the 
Church at Rome Paul said, "I beseech you, therefore, 
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your 
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, 
which is your reasonable service." (Rom. xii, i.) 
And to the Christians at Thessalonica he said, "The very 
God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God 
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
(i Thess. V, 23.) Be It remembered that the faith of 
these' Thessalonian Christians had been spread abroad 
"In every place" throughout all "Macedonia and 
Achala." They were noted everywhere for their 
faith and good works, and yet Paul prayed that they 
might be wholly sanctified. All the' foregoing exhor- 
tations were given to Christians, showing very clearly 



36 The Shining Way. 

that the work of entire sanctification had not been 
accomplished in them. They were not made perfect 
in love; but their great privilege was clearly set be- 
fore them, and they were earnestly exhorted to avail 
themselves of their high privilege. 

*'But," says one, *'is not God able to convert and 
wholly sanctify the soul at the same time?" Most 
assuredly He is. But it is not a question of God's 
ability at all, but of our faith. We are justified by 
faith. We are also sanctified by faith. Paul, in his 
discourse before Agrippa, says we **are sanctified by 
faith." (Acts xxvi, 18.) Dr. Adam Clarke, in com- 
menting on this verse, says we are taught, ''not only 
the forgiveness of sins, but the purification of the 
heart." We get just what we believe for. "What 
things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye 
receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark ix, 24.) 
AVhen faith is genuine, it is always distinct, and is put 
forth for a particular object. 

A very common question with our Lord was, 
"Believe ye' that I am able to do this?" Blind Barti- 
meus cried out to the Savior, saying : "Jesus, Thou Son 
of David, have mercy on me. Jesus answered, and said 
unto him. What wilt thou that I do unto thee ? The blind 
man said unto Him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. 
And Jesus said unto him. Go thy way; thy faith hath 
made thee whole. And immediately he received his 
sight, and followed Jesus in the way." (Mark x, 51, 52.) 
He got just what he believed for — eyesight. 

The leper said to Jesus, "Lord, if Thou wilt. Thou 
canst make me clean." This was his faith. Jesus said : 
"I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy 



What the Shining Way Is Not. 37 

was cleansed." (Matt, viii, 2, 3.) He received just 
what he believed for — cleansing. 

A father went to the Savior with his son, possessed 
with a dumb spirit. That father felt only as a father 
could feel under such circumstances. His own loved 
boy was under the complete power and control of the 
devil. How his heart must have bled with grief at 
every pore! Many a parent's heart bleeds to-day be- 
cause a son is under the complete power of Satan. 
With the deepest anguish of heart the father cried 
out: **If Thou canst do anything, have compassion on 
us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst 
believe; all things are' possible to him that believeth." 
The father exclaimed: 'Xord, I believe. Help thou 
mine unbelief. And the spirit came out of him.'* 
(Mark ix, 23-25.) He obtained just what he believed 
for — the deliverance of his son from the possession of 
a dumb devil. 

The Syrophenician woman believed for the deliver- 
ance of her daughter from the power of the "unclean 
spirit," and she received just what she believed for. 
The faith of all these persons was put forth for a dis- 
tinct obect, and they all received that for which they 
beUeved. 

The blind man believed for eyesight, and received 
it. The leper believed for cleansing, and received it. 
The' father beHeved for the deliverance of his son 
from the possession of the dumb devil, and the son 
was saved. The mother believed for the deliverance 
of her daughter from the unclean spirit, and the daugh- 
ter was rescued from his toils, restored, and made 
pure. To-day, as eighteen hundred years ago, we get 



38 The Shining Way. 

just what we believe for. If we believe for pardon, 
we get pardon. If we believe for perfect love, we get 
perfect love. If we believe for the' anointing of the 
Holy Ghost to qualify us for work, we receive the 
anointing. If the penitent at the altar, seeking pardon, 
could believe for pardon and entire sanctification at 
the same time, I believe he would receive both. But 
I have never known one who at the same moment 
could grasp all. Mr. R. P. Smith, in his "Holiness 
Through Faith," relates the following: "While address- 
ing a company in one of our mission-houses in New 
York, I noticed a young woman much affected. I 
found, after meeting, she Was an actress, who had 
been brought to the point of turning her back on all 
her past life; but she was unable' to believe that such 
a sinner as she was could receive the grace that was 
set before her. To my explanation of the Divine sacri- 
fice for sinners she only exclaimed, *0 yes, sir; I know 
that it is all true, but I can't believe that it is for me.' 
It seemed too great presumption for her to believe 
that all her sins were blotted out, and she at once 
placed in the family of God. I left her in this con- 
dition of mind — longing for salvation, and yet too 
faithless to believe that it was for her. 

"Upon parting with the actress, I was introduced 
to a refined, matronly. Christian woman, who, I under- 
stood, was giving her life to this gospel work among 
the abandoned. Her whole heart was in her work, 
with an energy and simplicity that I have never seen 
surpassed. Her joy was to spend her years in the 
midst of this moral leprosy, raising the cross among 
the dying souls around her. But even while thus 
laboring for Christ she felt most deeply her need of 



What the Shining Way Is Not. 39 

some privilege greatly beyond her present experience. 
So in earnest was she that she had just passed a sleep- 
less night of sorrow and prayer for the full and satis- 
fying revelation of Christ, with the complete' victory 
over her own will. She knew that her sins had been 
forgiven her, and that she truly loved Jesus. Work 
for Jesus was the most delightful thing in the' world 
to her. She knew that there was in the gospel a 
redemption 'from all iniquity,' but she had not found 
it. She knew that Christ bore her sins that she might 
become' dead to sin and alive to righteousness, but she 
had not attained to it. The secret of this unsupplied 
need was soon found. Full of faith for God's work in 
others, and up to a certain point in herself, she needed 
to open the door of her heart yet more widely, that 
the King of glory might come in. This dear saint, 
who had so often taught the lesson to anxious sinners 
of faith as the means of blessing, now saw that the 
very same lesson was to be learned by herself upon 
a different level. The very words that a few moments 
before had been said to the awakened actress — Trust 
in Christ for what her soul felt the need of — were now to 
be applied to herself. Shortly after this interview, the 
actress found Christ through faith, pardon for all her 
sins ; and the missionary, upon 'her high level of Chris- 
tian experience, also found in Christ, through faith, 
'cleansing from all unrighteousness.' Faith in each 
grasped the promise." 

Each received just what she' needed and just what 
she believed for. From the very beginning to the 
highest summit of Christian attainment faith is the 
channel of God's blessing, while unbelief is the bar. 
"So much faith, so much deliverance ; no more, no less ! 



40 



The Shining Way. 



If we would live up to the gospel standard of holiness, 
we must believe up to the gospel standard of faith." 
Christian perfection is a soul made perfect in love. A 
soul made perfect in love is a soul perfectly pure. A soul 
perfectly pure is a soul cleansed fro'm all sin, inbred or 
birth sin and actual sin. If you desire that perfect 
cleansing, believe for it, and you will have it. 

8. Christian perfection does not imply that we can 
not fall. If "the angels which kept not their first estate, 
but left their own habitation," fell into sin, and are 
"reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto 
the judgment of the great day;" if Adam in paradise 
fell; if Solomon, the best and wisest man that ever 
lived, fell, we nee'd not expect that we shall become 
so holy that we can not fall. The very highest pos- 
sible state of grace attainable in this life will not exempt 
us from danger. So it becomes necessary for us to 
say to the purest men and women that walk the earth: 

" O watch, and fight, and pray ; 
The battle ne'er give o'er ; 
Renew it boldly every day, 
And help divine implore. 

Ne'er think the victory won, 

Nor lay thine armor down ; 
The work of faith will not be done 

Till thou obtain the crown." 

9. Christian perfection is not maturity. Purity is 
one thing, and maturity is another. They are just as 
distinct as day and night. Many jumble the two to- 
gether. Christian perfection is purity. Purity is free- 
dom from sin, and is the result of God's extirpating 
power. Maturity is the result of growth, and takes 
time. Purity is a work wrought in the heart instan- 



What the Shining Way Is Not. 41 

faneously by the power of God. Maturity, being the 
result of growth, is gradual, and may go on indefinitely. 
Some' think, if they are sanctified wholly they can never 
grow any more, when in fact they are just prepared 
to grow rapidly. Purity removes from the heart that 
which hinders growth. Inborn sin is a hindrance to 
growth, just as weeds in the field are a hindrance' to 
the growth of the corn. Remove the weeds, and the 
corn will grow more rapidly. Remove all sin from the 
heart, and you will grow in grace more' rapidly than 
ever. Let the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ be ap- 
plied to the heart by the Holy Ghost, and you will re- 
ceive an impetus that will send you on your heavenly 
way with a speed you never dreamed of before. We 
are commanded to ''grow in grace ;" but not into grace. 
Grace must first be imparted before there can be growth. 
As in nature, so in grace; first life, then growth. Par- 
don is by faith, and is instantaneous. God does not 
pardon gradually. When God pardons a soul, it is a 
perfect work. All actual sin is forgiven, and will be 
remembered against that soul no more forever; and 
that work is done in an instant, in the twinkling of an 
eye. After pardon, then we may grow. Entire sancti- 
fication is by faith, and is instantaneous, just as 
pardon is. 

A few years ago the wife of a distinguished minister 
was lying hopelessly ill. All was mist and uncertainty 
before her. She' longed for the purity and peace 
promised in the Holy Word ; but her husband had al- 
ways preached a gradual growth in grace, and com- 
pleteness in Christ only at death, and she waited for 
that hour in dread uncertainty. "O that I could have 
complete' deliverance from sin now, before that fear- 






42 The Shining Way. 

ful hour !" she exclaimed. "Why not ?" the Spirit sug- 
gested. She sent for her husband, and as he entered 
her sick chamber, she anxiously inquired, "Can Christ 
save me" from all sin ?" "Yes ; He is an Almighty Savior, 
your Savior, able to save to the uttermost." "When 
can He save me? You have often said that He saves 
from all sin at the dying moment. If He is Almighty, 
do n't you think He could save me a few minutes be- 
fore death? It would take the sting of death away to 
know that I am saved." "Yes ; I think He could." 
"Well, if He could save me a few minutes before death, 
do n't you believe it possible for Him to save a few 
hours or a day before death?" The husband bowed 
his assent. "But," she said, with deep emotion and 
great earnestness, "I may live a week or a month; do 
you think it possible for God to save a soul from all 
sin so long before death ?" "Yes ; all things are pos- 
sible with God," he answered, with deep emotion. 
"Then kneel right down here and pray for me. I want 
this full salvation now, and if I live a month, I will live 
to praise God." 

He knelt beside her bed, and offered a prayer such 
as he had never offered before; and while he prayed, 
the cleansing blood that makes whiter than snow was 
applied to her soul, and she was enabled to rejoice with 
joy unspeakable and full of glory. She lived a month 
afterwards to magnify the grace of God and testify 
to that perfect love that casteth out fear. 

From the grave of his wife that husband went forth 
to preach Christ as a present Savior, able to save from 
all sin. 

A wholly sanctified soul is just as pure a moment 
after the cleansing blood is applied as the soul of the 



What the Shining Way Is Not. 43 

man who has been sanctified for twenty years. But 
the man who has been walking for twenty years under 
the cleansing blood, has an experience deeper, wider, 
richer, and far more extensive than the man who has 
just been fully saved. The difference is not in quantity, 
but quality. A drop of water may be just as pure as 
the ocean, but there is more in the ocean than in the 
drop. A soul cleansed from all sin is prepared to 
grow more rapidly than ever. 

When crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in 
1850, after traveling for some time, we reached a point 
where we supposed we saw the summit. A lofty 
mountain-peak rose in solitary grandeur before us. We 
said, and we rejoiced at the sight, ''There is the summit." 
We started up the rough mountain-side, and after 
traveling for some three hours, reached its summit. 
But to our surprise, and not a little disappointment, 
we saw rising, far away above and beyond us, another 
mountain-peak. We said, "Well, we thought this was 
the summit, but were very much mistaken. That 's the 
summit away up there." 

We started, and after several hours of weary travel, 
we at length reached this mountain summit; but to our 
utter disappointment and astonishment we saw, rising 
before us, higher up and farther away, another moun- 
tain-peak. We made no more predictions. Again, 
after a short rest, we started, and after plodding through 
slush and snow for nearly a half a day, reached this 
mountain summit. Then, away above and beyond us, 
rose another. Mountain-peak rose above mountain- 
peak, higher and higher and higher. And thus it is 
with the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, if we live 
up to all the light God gives us. 



44 The Shining ^^'AY. 

The Christian's pathway to the skies is an ascend- 
ing pathway. ]Mountain-peak of joy and knowledge 
in Di\dne things rises above mountain-peak, higher and 
higher and higher. Our experience may grow deeper, 
and wider, and richer, and grander. We go from a 
justified soul to a soul made perfect in love; from a 
soul made perfect in love to a soul glorified in body 
and spirit; then onward and upward forever and ever. 

10. Perfect love is not simply ecstasy. It is not 
simply a bubbling up of joy, overflowing the soul ^vith 
rapturous delight. It is, however, always peace, al- 
ways rest of soul, and sometimes the great tidal waves 
of joy roll over the heart, deluging the whole soul, and 
filling it ^nth an unearthly rapture. It is not always 
liberty in prayer, or in testimony, or in preaching. So, 
if we do not always have great ecstasy, or great liberty 
in prayer or testimony or preaching, we are not to 
conclude that we are not saved. Christian perfection 
is not ecstasy, but purity; and we obtain purity, not 
by feeling, but simple faith in Christ. 

"O for a faith that ^vill not shrink. 
Though pressed by every foe ; 
That will not tremble on the brink 
Of any earthly woe ! 

A faith that shines more bright and clear 

"UTien tempests rage without ; 
That when in danger knows no fear, 

In darkness feels no doubt!" 

Unconditional surrender of all to Christ, and un- 
shaken faith in His ability and \nllingness to save to 
the uttermost now, this very moment, will bring to the 
heart the consciousness of this great salvation. ^lav 
every reader of these pages have this sweet, rich, glow- 
ing, and abiding experience ! 






CHAPTER IV. 
THOSE ON THE SHINING WAY SEALED. 

THE sanctified have just as clear an evidence of their 
sanctification as they had of their justification. 
The Holy Ghost bears witness just as clearly to the 
one as to the other. Says Paul, "In whom ye also 
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel 
of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye be- 
lieved, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." 
(Eph. i, 13.) 

It was customary among all nations, when a person 
purchased goods of any kind, to mark, with his seal, 
the goods bought, so that he might know them and 
be able to claim them if mixed with other goods. To 
this custom Paul refers when he says, "Ye were' sealed 
with that Holy Spirit of promise.'* 

When God sanctifies a soul, He puts His Divine 
seal upon that soul by sending Into that soul His Spirit ; 
and he who has the Spirit, has God's seal that he be- 
longs to the' heavenly family. 

Mr. Wesley says, "None, therefore, ought to be- 
lieve that the work is done till there Is added the testi- 
mony of the Spirit, witnessing his entire' sanctification 
as clearly as his justification." (Plain Account, page 8.) 

"We have received, not the spirit of the world, but 
the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the 
things that are freely given to us of God." (i Cor. 
ii, 12.) 

Sanctification Is one of the things that is freely 

45 



46 The Shining Way. 

given us of God, and Paul here declares that the Holy 
Spirit gives to us the knowledge of this fact. 

When the Holy Spirit convicts man of sin and of 
the need of pardon, he knows it. This is a fact that 
comes within the range of his ow^n consciousness. No 
fact in the universe is more clear to his mind than this. 
The Holy Spirit witnesses to the fact that he is a sinner. 
No argument, no logic can convince him to the con- 
trary. He has the spirit of bondage' to fear. 

Then, when the convicted man surrenders to God, 
and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit 
witnesses to the great fact of pardon. He now has the' 
Spirit of adoption. ''The Spirit itself beareth witness 
with our spirit that we are the children of God." (Rom. 
viii, i6.) 

Then, when the Holy Spirit convicts the believer of 
the need of heart-purity, he knows that. When this 
great want, this insatiable hunger comes into the soul, 
he knows it. Can a man be hungry, and not know it? 
Can a man be thirsty, and not know it? So, wheti this 
want comes into the soul of the believer, he knows it. 
It is a matter that comes within the range of his own 
inner consciousness, and he knows it just as certainly 
as he knew that he was a sinner when first convicted 
of sin. No argument, no logic, can possibly convince 
him to the contrary. Then when he believes on the 
Lord Jesus Christ for a pure heart, the Spirit witnesses 
as clearly as to any former state that "The blood of 
Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." 

What is the witness of the Spirit to our sanctifi- 
cation ? 

The witness is not simply ecstasy, great emotion, 
or great joy. These may exist in connection with the 



Those on the Shining Way Sealed. 47 

witness, for they are some of the fruits of the Spirit; 
but they are not the witness. 

The witness of the Holy Spirit to our full and com- 
plete salvation is richer and sweeter and deeper and 
grander than emotion. 

It is richer, deeper, sweeter, grander, and far more 
permanent than joy or ecstasy. 

What is it, then ? 

It is a Divine conviction made upon the heart by 
the Holy Ghost that God loves me and that He saves 
me from all sin. 

This Divine conviction that God loves me and saves 
me does not depend on emotion or joy or great ecstasy 
or feeling of any kind whatever. 

This Divine impression that God saves me is just 
the same when there is no feeling, no joy, no ecstasy, 
as when there is great feeling, great joy, and great 
emotion; so that he who has the witness of his entire 
sanctification is not disturbed in the least when there 
is an absence' of all joy and all feeling. Such a one 
is sealed. He has the knowledge of present salvation 
and a pledge of eternal glory hereafter. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE RELATION OF THE MINISTRY TO THE SHINING 

WAY. 

A TREMENDOUS responsibility rests upon every 
man called of God to preach the gospel. If the 
minister is true to God and loyal to his high and 
heaven-ordained calling, he must preach the gospel — 
the whole gospel, the gospel in its entirety. He must 
warn sinners of their danger, and show believers their 
high and heaven-favored privileges. He must preach 
a burning hell, the undying worm, a flaming judgment, 
as we'll as a heaven of ever-increasing light and glory. 

Why is it that revivals are so few in these days ? 

This vital question is being discussed in all the 
papers of all the Churches, in ministerial meetings, pub- 
lic gatherings, everywhere', in public and in private. 
It is a great question — a question rising far above all 
ordinary questions. 

Why is it that many of the so-called revivals of 
the present day are so weak, superficial, and lacking in 
the old-time heaven-and-earth-quaking power? 

Why is it that so many of our Churches are dead 
spiritually — twice dead, plucked up by the roots? 

Why is it that so many of them are neither cold 
nor hot, and God Almighty is ready to spew them out 
of His mouth? 

Why is it that so many of our people are living 
down in Grumbling Alley, amid the smoke and soot 
and filth and gloom, where the whole atmosphere is 

48 



The Ministry and the Shining Way. 49 

heavy with spiritual poison and death? And why is 
it that there are so few walking the Shining Way of 
holiness, where a doubt never comes to stay, and a 
cloud never rolls, but where the sun shines bright all 
the year round? 

These are burning questions — questions that' ought 
to go home with weight and power to every Christian 
heart. 

We can not resist the conviction that the cause, in 
part at least — not wholly, perhaps — lies at the door of 
the ministry. Our ministers have failed to preach the 
old, rugged gospel. 

May not the foregoing questions be answered in part 
as follows? — 

I. A time-serving ministry. The awful fact stares us 
in the face that there are many time-servers in the 
pulpits of our land. 

The prophet Ho-sea draws a dark and dismal pic- 
ture of the condition of the nation and the people of 
his day: "There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge 
of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, 
and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, 
and blood toucheth blood." (Hosea iv, 2, 3.) 

The people went down in sin, and the priests fol- 
lowed ; as the prophet declares in the ninth verse : "Like 
people, like priest." 

The priests refused to lift up their warning voice, 
cry aloud, and show the people their sins, and all alike 
were swept into the awful vortex of ruin. 

Paul, in writing to Timothy, graphically describes 

the condition of many Churches of the present day: 

"The time will come when they will not endure sound 

doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to 

4 



so 



The Shining Way 



having itching 



ears." (2 Tim. 



themselves teachers 

IV, 3.) 

The ministers of these Churches, like the priests 
in the days of Hosea, cater to the wish of the people. 
Instead of doing as Paul told Timothy to do — "Preach 
the Word; be instant in season, out of season; rebuke, 
reprove, exhort, \^ith all long-suffering and doctrine" — 
they endeavor to tickle the ear, charm the imagination, 
and thus lull to sleep the people in their sins. They 
cry, ''Peace, peace, when there is no peace." "They 
heal the heart of the daughter of God's people slightly." 
*'They daub ^^-ith untempered mortar," and when the 
storms of death and the judgment come, the fall and 
ruin will be fearful and eternal. 

2. The desire for popularity and the praise of men. 
This desire finds its way into the pulpit as well as 
the pew. There is a natural desire in man for self-pro- 
motion and self-glory, a desire for the praise and hon- 
ors of the world. This desire chngs to the imperfect 
Christian. It manifests itself in the ministry and the 
laity. Nothing but perfect love can eradicate it from 
the heart. The fire of the Holy Ghost alone can burn 
it out of the soul. 

After Dr. Daniel Steele was sanctified, he said : ''I am 
as dead to all personal ambition as the autumn leaves 
beneath my feet. It was different once. There was once 
a desire for the applause of men — a name resounding 
in the trumpet of fame. It was not noticeable to my 
friends ; but it existed, an uneasy tenant of my bosom. 
But five years ago it was removed." 

This "uneasy tenant" in the bosom of Dr. Steele 
before he was sanctified, finds a place in the bosom of 
many unsanctified ministers of the gospel. And this 



The Ministry and the Shining Way. 51 

desire leads them to tone down the gospel to please 
the people. Hence the Churches languish and die 
spiritually. 

A popular minister of the gospel dreamed that he 
died, and was surprised to find himself in hell, sur- 
rounded with fiends and lost souls, tossed to and fro 
upon the burning waves of the lake of fire. It was 
an awful surprise to him ; for, being a minister, he ex- 
pected to gain heaven. He asked for an explanation. 
It was given. Said one of the friends, "You preached 
to please men, and not to save them ; for the honors 
and applause of the world and a fine salary, and not 
alone for souls ; and now you have your reward." 
He awoke. His hair was on end. The great drops 
of sweat, like beads, were oozing from every part of his 
body. He arose, kneeled by his bedside, and asked 
God to forgive him. Then he went forth to preach a 
different gospel. It was not so pleasing to the worldly 
tastes of some, but souls were saved, and the Church 
was built up wherever he went. 

God says to every minister of the gospel, and these 
burning words ring in my ears almost constantly: "I 
have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel ; 
therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give them 
warning from Me. When I say unto the wicked. Thou 
shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor 
speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to 
save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his 
iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand." 
(Ezek. iii, 17, 18.) 

3. This time-serving spirit and intense desire for 
popularity and fame keeps the mouth of the minister 
closed on the great subject of holiness. He is silent 



52 The Shining Way. 

touching the grandest theme in all the wide range of 
the Bible. The doctrine that should ring out from 
every pulpit, rising far above all other doctrines, is sel- 
dom heard, and if heard at all, it is mentioned in such 
a vague way that none understand it, and none are led 
into its blissful experience. The all-important doctrine 
of holiness — that which alone will fit man for a happy 
life, a victorious death, a triumphal car in which to 
ride to heaven, and a home of unsullied joy beyond the 
stars — is a doctrine he seems the least interested in and 
the least acquainted with. 

Strange that a minister should be so shy of the 
foremost doctrine of the Bible. He should be better 
acquainted with the doctrine of holiness, both theo- 
retically and experimentally, than any other doctrine 
of the Scriptures ; for "without holiness no man shall 
see the Lord." 

I have often w^ondered that pastors who have to 
send away for evangelists in order to get souls saved 
in their own Churches do not see where their own 
weakness lies. 

Not a single successful evangelist of which we have 
ever read or seen, but what has made the doctrine of 
holiness prominent in his services. They understand 
the doctrine theoretically and experimentally, and are 
able to lead Christians into its dehghtful enjoyment. 
James Caughey, who went Hke a flame through Can- 
ada, the United States, and Great Britain, winning 
thousands on thousands to Christ, kept this doctrine 
prominently before all his congregations. He could 
tell a sinner just how to be saved, and he could tell a 
believer just how to be sanctified. 

Bishop William Taylor has been the most success- 



The Ministry and the Shining Way. 53 

ful evangelist since Paul's day. In seven months he 
was instrumental in the conversion of seven thousand 
Africans — one thousand a month. In the United States, 
in South America, in Australia, in Africa, and India, 
tens of thousands were converted through this man of 
God. In every land and in all his services the doctrine 
of holiness was made very prominent. 

Charles G. Finney, K. P. Hammond, Thomas Har- 
rison, Dwight L. Moody, — all these great soul-winners 
have had heart-purity, and this has given them their 
marvelous power. These great evangelists do not have 
a monopoly on holiness. This same power these holy 
men have had every minister of the gospel may have. 
There are pastors who enjoy holiness, and who have 
revivals and numerous conversions yearly, who often 
send for an evangelist to aid them ; for they know the 
real worth of an evangelist. And when the evangeHst 
goes to aid such a pastor, he has an easy and a glo- 
rious time. Then there are other pastors, who rarely 
have a conversion without an evangelist. And the 
simple fact that they must send away for an evangelist 
in order to have a revival and souls converted is an 
acknowledgment of their own spiritual weakness. Every 
pastor may be an evangelist. 

John Wesley, whose fame as a preacher, an organizer, 
and a soul-winner grows with the years, and will continue 
to shine brighter and brighter as the ages pass, kept the 
doctrine of holiness conspicuously prominent before 
all his preachers and all his people. He declared that 
the ministers who were true to holiness were a success, 
and those who were not true to this great doctrine were 
a failure. Hear him : "Where Christian perfection is 
not strongly and explicitly preached, there is seldom 



54 The Shining Way. 

any remarkable blessing from God, and consequently 
little to the society and little life in the members of it. 
. . . Ivet not regard for any man induce you to be- 
tray the truth of God. Till yoii press the believers 
to expect full salvation now, you must not look for any 
revival." (Works, Vol. VI, page 761.) 

*'I hope he is not ashamed to preach full salvation, 
receivable now, by faith. This i's the word which God 
will always bless, and which the devil peculiarly hates ; 
therefore he is constantly stirring up both his own 
children and the weak children of God against it." 
(Letter to Mrs. Bennis, 1771.) 

"I found the plain reason why the work of God 
had gained no ground in this (Launceston) circuit in 
all the year. The preachers had given up the Methodist 
testimony. Either they did not speak of perfection at 
all (the peculiar doctrine committed to our trust), or they 
spoke of it only in general terms, without urging the 
believers to go on unto perfection and to expect it every 
moment. And wherever this is not done the work of 
God does not prosper. (Vol. IV, page 459.) 

Writing to Rev. Peard Dickenson, in 1767, he' said : 
*'Do not forget strongly and explicitly to urge the be- 
lievers to 'go on to perfection.' When this is con- 
stantly and earnestly done, the word is always clothed 
with power." (Works, Vol. VII, page loi.) 

"If you press all the believers to go on to perfec- 
tion, and to expect deliverance from sin every mo- 
ment, they will grow in grace. But if ever they lose 
that expectation, they will grow flat and cold." (Works, 
Vol. VII, page 96.) 

Writing to Rev. Freeborn Garrettson in 1785, he 
said: *%et none of them rest in being half Christians. 



The Ministry and the Shining Way. 55 

Whatever they do, let them do it with all their might; 
and it will be well, as soon as any of them find peace 
with God, to exhort them to 'go on to perfection/ 
The more explicitly and strongly you press all beHev- 
ers to aspire after full sanctification, as attainable now 
by simple faith, the more the whole work of God will 
prosper." (Works, Vol. VII, page 172.) 

To Rev. John Baxendale, in 1785 : "You send me an 
agreeable account of the work of God in and near 
Wigan. Indeed, His work will flourish in every place 
where full sanctification is clearly and strongly 
preached." (Works, Vol VII, page 172.) 

Rev. L. Tyerman, in his "Life and Times of Wes- 
ley," says : "All who are acquainted with Methodist 
history are well aware' that Methodism has always 
prospered most when the doctrine of entire sanctifica- 
tion has been most popular." 

Holiness is the distinctive and peculiar doctrine of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church ; and just as we are 
true and loyal to this grand old doctrine will we be 
successful in winning souls for the Master. As loyal 
Methodists, then, let us fling the banner of holiness to 
the breeze. Let it float out and wave oyer every society. 
Let it be lifted so high that all the world can see it. 
Above all, let us have the experience, the indubitable 
consciousness that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth 
from all sin; then the "beauty of holiness" will shine 
out in all our words and looks and acts, and then the 
world will be attracted to it as certainly as the needle 
is attracted to the pole. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THOSE ON THE SHINING WAY FREE FROM THE 
CARNAL MIND. 

PAUL says, "To be carnally-minded is death; but 
to be spiritually-minded is life and peace." 
(Rom. viii, 6.) 

The carnal mind is that which was with us when we 
were born. It is inherited depravity. This inherited 
depravity is evil, and only evil, and that continually. 
The carnal mind is earthly. The earthly-minded man 
lives for this world. The spiritually-minded man lives 
for the world to come. Mr. Wesley said, ''I am steer- 
ing for the headlands of glory." Every fully-saved soul 
is headed for the skies; he is making for the port of 
endless day. The trend of the carnally-minded man is 
downward. The trend of the spiritually-minded man 
is heavenward. ''The carnal mind is enmity against 
God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither, 
indeed, can be." (Rom. viii, 7.) 

It never can be subject to the law of God. As it is 
not subject to the law of God, and never can be; as 
it is always and eternally opposed to God and God's 
law, and never can be anything else, it can not, there- 
fore, be mended. The only thing to be done with it 
is to have it eradicated. Dr. Adam Clarke says, "It 
must be destroyed." 

That there is something in the human heart after 
conversion that gives the Christian a great deal of 
trouble is patent to everv converted man and woman. 

' 56 



Free from the Carnal Mind. 57 

This troublesome thing is the carnal mind, or, as Mr. 
Wesley calls it, **inbred sin/* 

The Bible clearly teaches that the carnal mind re- 
mains after conversion, and that a second work is needed 
to take it away. The Churches just as clearly teach 
the same great fact. The experience of converted men 
and women the wide world over confirm just what the 
Bible and the Churches teach. 

I. The Bible is very clear. It gives no uncertain 
sound on this subject. In writing to the Corinthian 
Church, Paul says, "And I, brethren, could not speak 
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as 
unto babes in Christ." (i Cor. iii, i.) 

These persons to whom Paul addressed these words 
were Christians. This is evident from the fact that 
he calls them ''the Church of God which is at Corinth ;" 
''The grace which is given you by Jesus Christ;" 
"Called saints ;" "Babes in Christ." 

All these terms and phrases show clearly and prove, 
beyond even the shadow of a doubt, that they were 
Christians, and hence regenerated. These Corinthian 
Christians had carnality, or what Mr. Wesley called 
"inbred sin." In the seventh chapter of second Corin- 
thians, Paul calls the carnal mind "filthiness of the 
flesh and spirit." "Having, therefore, these promises, 
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthi- 
ness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the 
fear of God." 

Here he is writing to these same Corinthian Chris- 
tians, and he declares that they had filthiness of the 
flesh and spirit, and he exhorts them to have this filthi- 
ness cleansed away. 

In the fourth chapter of Ephesians and the twenty- 



58 The Shining Way. 

second verse he calls inbred sin *'the old man:" "Put 
off the old man, which is corrupt according to the 
deceitful lusts.'* In writing to the Romans, the apostle 
calls it "the body of sin:" "Knowing this, that our 
old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might 
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." 
(Rom. vi, 9.) 

Twenty-five hundred years ago God said to His 
people, "I will take away the stony heart out of your 
flesh, and will give you an heart of flesh." (Ezek. 
xxxvi, 26.) 

God is not speaking here of conversion; but He is 
speaking of a great blessing that was to come upon 
His people. He Is speaking here of His own children. 
He tells them that He will take away their stony heart. 
Ezekiel was a good man, the prophets were good men, 
and yet God tells these good men that they had stony 
hearts ; and He tells them that He will take away their 
stony hearts. "I will take away the stony heart out 
of your flesh." Many good people' to-day have stony 
hearts. 

What do we understand by a stony heart? 'A stone 
is something cold, hard, and heavy. Where is the con- 
verted man that has not, at times, felt a cold, hard, 
and heavy feeling In the soul? Some days the heart 
is light and tender and warm and joyous ; but suddenly 
and unexpectedly a dark, cold, hard feeling is felt Inside. 

Some years ago I was holding revival-meetings in 
my charge. One' of the leading official members had 
stood by me, and was very active and very successful 
in leading sinners to the altar, and in helping them Into 
the light of salvation. 

One night I was drawn out in an exhortation to the 



Free from the Carnal Mind. 59 

Church. I spoke of the need of heart-purity, and urged 
all who were not wholly sanctified to come to the altar. 
From that moment that good brother took no more 
interest in the meeting. He was active no longer. He 
was opposed to holiness as a distinct work of grace 
after conversion, and the very moment I spoke of this 
and its necessity, the stony heart was manifested. He 
was as cold and hard and indifferent as the unconverted. 
Many good people have the stony heart, and only some 
little, trivial circumstance is needed to make' it manifest. 
Well, God wants to take away this stony heart, and He 
will do it if we will only let Him. Then it will trouble 
us no more. Thousands on thousands have had it 
taken away, and they are' as free and light and cheer- 
ful as the bird soaring away to the skies, singing upon 
the wings of liberty. Hallelujah ! 

God, by the mouth of the Prophet Hosea, said of 
His ancient people: '*My people are bent to backslid- 
ing from Me." (Hosea xi, 7.) 

God do n't say that sinners are bent to backsliding ; 
but His own people. His own children. *'My people 
are bent to backsliding." 

God's people are His people everywhere and in every 
age. And God says, *'My people are bent to back- 
sliding." And what God declares, all history, observa- 
tion, and experience confirm. God's people, in every 
age, country, and clime, have been bent to backsliding. 
This bent to backsliding shows that there is something 
crooked in the heart of a converted man — something 
radically wrong — something that ought not to be there. 
That bent to evil, that radically wrong thing in the' 
heart felt by every Christian the wide world over, God 
is ready and willing and anxious to remove. 



6o The Shining Way. 

"Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which 
doth so easily beset us." (Heb. xii, i.) Here again is 
seen very clearly the carnal mind, inbred sin. 

This besetting sin manifests itself in different per- 
sons in different ways. In some it is seen in the strong 
and ungovernable temper. They are quick as a flash. 
The least thing that goes wrong or opposes their plans, 
irritates them, and they go off like powder when the 
fire touches it. 

The colored man was not far out of the way when 
he' read the verse, "The sin which doth so easily upset 
us." Alas ! how many of us have been upset by it. In 
others it is seen in fleshly lust; in others an inordinate 
desire for money ; in others a desire for fame and earthly 
glory. This besetting sin is in every unsanctified heart. 
In an unguarded moment, this besetting sin, the' carnal 
mind, often gets the better of us. Then we have to 
mourn and weep over our failure. 

When traveling the Omaha District many years ago, 
there lived on one of the charges a very good man. 
He was class-leader, steward, and trustee. He took a 
deep interest in the welfare of the Church. I was always 
delightfully entertained at his elegant home. He and 
his estimable wife were the very embodiment of Chris- 
tian generosity and hospitality. But this good man had 
a most violent temper, and it often got the advantage 
of him. One day a man came into his office to transact 
some business. The man called in question some part 
of his account. The good brother became angry at 
once, rose from his seat;, knocked the man down, or- 
dered him out of his office, and told him never to 
darken the door of his office again. In a few minutes 



Free from the Carnal Mind. 6i 
the report went all over the village that Brother A , 



the leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
had had a terrible fight with one of his customers. 
Shortly after this occurred, I went there to hold quar- 
terly-meeting. The brother told me all about the affair, 
and wept as though his heart would break. "O," said 
he, ''I have disgraced myself, and disgraced my family, 
and disgraced the Church. The only thing for me to 
do is to leave the Church entirely." I prevailed on him 
not to do this, but to make the proper acknowledgment, 
and the Church would forgive him. This he did, and 
the Church forgave him. I told him God would take 
that evil temper out of him, if he would only trust 
Him, — that it was the carnal mind, and that Christ 
was ready and willing to destroy in him that awful 
temper. But I could not get him to trust Christ for 
complete deliverance. Many others, like this good 
brother, have the same besetting sin. Christ can and 
will save us from this sin if we will only trust Him. 
For this very purpose He came into the world. 

In writing to the mem'bers of the Church at Ephesus, 
Paul exhorts them to "Put ofif concerning the former 
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according 
to the deceitful lusts." (Eph. iv, 22.) 

This exhortation is given to Christians. He calls 
these very persons to whom this exhortation is given, 
"Fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household 
of God." And yet these fellow-citizens with the saints 
and of the household of God had in them the "old man," 
the carnal mind, and Paul exhorts them to put off the 
old man, and then adds, "Put on the new man, which 
after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness." 



62 The Shining Way, 

The Bible therefore clearly teaches that the carnal 
mind remains in the heart after conversion. Conversion 
does not eliminate the carnal mind. 

2. What the Bible so clearly teaches touching the 
carnal mind, or inbred sin, all evangelical Churches 
teach. 

There is not an evangehcal Church in all Christen- 
dom but Vv'hat teaches that inbred sin remains after 
conversion. And all admit that entire sanctification 
must take place before the soul is fitted for heaven. 
!Many believe, however, that the vrork is not done until 
death, or just before death. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church is very clear on 
this subject. 

In the catechism we have the following questions 
and answers : 

1. "What is regeneration?" 

Answer. — "It is the new birth of the soul in the 
image of Christ, whereby we become the children of 
God." 

2. "What is sanctification?" 

Answer. — "Sanctification is that act of Divine grace 
whereby we are made holy." Regeneration is the new 
birth whereby we become the children of God. 

Sanctification is the Divine act that makes us holy. 
It is the Diz'ine act that puts to death the carnal mind. 

Paul says, "Our old man is crucified that the body 
of sin might be destroyed." (Rom. vi, 6.) 

3. The experience of all Christians is in perfect 
harmony with the teachings of the Bible and all the 
Churches on this subject. Christians of all ages, the 
wide world over, admit that there is in the heart after 
conversion something that gives them a great deal of 



Free from the Carnal Mind. 63 

trouble. And how many there are who long and wish 
that it were not there. A little girl, only five years 
old, gave a most graphic description of inbred sin. One 
day she said to her mother, ''Papa calls me good, 
auntie calls me good, and everybody calls me good; 
but I am not good." 

"I am very sorry," said the mother. 

"And so am I," said the child, "but I have a very 
naughty think." 

"A naughty what?" 

"My think is naughty inside of me." 

Her mother inquired what she meant, and she said : 

"When I could not ride yesterday, I did not cry, 
or say anything; but when you were gone I wished 
the carriage would turn over, and the horses would run 
away, and everything bad. Nobody knew it; but God 
knew it, and He can not call me good." 

The naughty think, the violent temper, the revenge- 
ful feeling, the fleshly lusts, the inordinate desire for 
worldly fame — all these trouble and greatly harass the 
Christian who is not wholly sanctified. And all these 
may be eradicated by the mighty power of Divine grace. 
Many, all through the ages, have had these evils en- 
tirely extirpated. All who are on the Shining Way 
have had these scourges removed. 

When this great work is done and the carnal mind 
destroyed, then there comes into the soul the settled 
peace, the great calm, the undisturbed repose, the joy 
tha!t is unspeakable and full of glory. 

George Fox, the famous Quaker, said: "I knew 
Jesus, and He was precious to my soul. But there 
was something in my heart that would not keep sweet, 
that would not be kind, that would not be patient. I 



64 The Shining Way. 

asked God to take it away, and when I gave Him my 
will, the Lord came into my heart and took out all 
that would not keep sweet, all that would not be pa- 
tient, all that would not be kind, and He shut the 
door." 

What a glorious experience that was! 

And that same rich, hallowed, glowing, marvelous 
experience God is willing and ready to give to every 
one of His trusting children. 

If He did that great work for George Fox, He will 
do it for the reader, He will do it for every man and 
woman that walks the face of the earth, for God is no 
respecter of persons. 

The crowning work of the Savior on earth is the 
cleansing of the heart from inbred sin. This is the 
last link in the golden chain of a perfected salvation. 
The next link is glorification. 

Eight hundred years before the advent of Christ, 
Isaiah declared that w^hen the Savior came, He would 
do a great work in Zion — in the Church — among His 
own children. What was this great work the Savior 
was to do? The prophet tells us, "To comfort all that 
mourn ; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to 
give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for 
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of 
heaviness." (Isa. Ixi, 2, 3.) 

When Jesus Christ by His Spirit comes to the heart 
of the believer, and purges it from inbred sin, then He 
gives to that heart "beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, 
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness," and 
it is just as natural for him to say "praise the L/ord" 
as it is for him to breathe. Did you ever notice how 



Free from the Carnal Mind. 6^ 

perfectly natural and perfectly spontaneous, without any 
effort at all, the fully saved soul will say, "Praise the 
Lord!" "Hallelujah!" 

They will say, "Praise the Lord/' if the body and 
mind are suffering the most intense agony. It is said 
that during her last illness, Mrs Phoebe Palmer suffered 
great bodily pain. But not a single murmur escaped 
her lips. When the severe pain would strike her, she 
would exclaim, "Hallelujah !" And hallelujahs emanated 
from her lips to the vepy last. Whenever I hear a fully- 
saved soul say, "Praise the Lord!" '^Hallelujah!" I say 
to myself, "Here is another living illustration of the 
fulfillment of the prophecy made by Isaiah eight hundred 
years before the advent of Christ, that when Christ came 
He would give to His people "the garment of praise for 
the spirit of heaviness." 

When the angel Gabriel made the announcement 
to Joseph of the coming Messiah he said, "Thou shalt 
call His name Jesus ; for He shall save His people from 
their sins." (M'att. i, 21.) 

The pre-eminent, the crowning work of Jesus on 
earth is to save His people from their sins. Paul says, 
** Christ abo loved the Church, and gave Himself for 
it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the wash- 
ing of water by the word, that He might present it to 
Himself a glorious Church, not having spat, or wrinkle, 
or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and with- 
out blemish." (Eph. v, 25-27.) 

How shall we get this great blessing? 

1. We must consecraite every faculty and power of 
body, soul, and spirit to God. 

2. We must believe that it is for us. And with the 
5 



66 The Shining Way. 

wonderful promises we have already quoted, how dare 
we doubt for a single moment that this great blessing 
is for us. 

3. We must desire it. 

Until we desire above all other things the eradica- 
tion of inbred sin from our hearts we shall not receive it. 

Now if our consecration is complete, and there is in 
the heart an intense, earnest, longing desire to be free 
from the carnal mind, and our faith is genuine, it will 
not be long until the wonderful work will be accom- 
pHshed. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst 
after righteousness, for they shall be filled." (Matt, v, 6.) 

When a man is' real' hungry, then he will desire food 
above every other thing. When a m'an is thirsty, and 
famishing, he will- desire water above all other things. 
And there is nothing within his power that he will not 
willingly give in order to obtain that for which he so 
earnestly- desires. 

So when a man begins to hung^er and thirst after 
the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ, there 
is nothing he is not willing to Ho or give up in order 
that he niay. obtain that for which his soul so earnestly 
and longingly desires. . 

Penelope was one of the loveliest women in all the 
world's history. ' ^ 

Ulysses, 'her husband, went away to the war. For 
ten years he was at the siege of Troy, and for ten 
years he was a wanderer. During all these years no 
tidings came to Penelope from him she loved above 
all others on the earth. 

The months passed, the;years,oine by, one, passed, 
and still no tidings came. Year after year rolled slowly 
away, and still no word came to Penelope. 



Free from the Carnal Mind. 67 

By and by, all said, "He is dead. He will never 
return." 

Then the lovely Penelope had many suitors. They 
were among the royalty, and the noblest men of the 
realm. One pressed her hand. She said "No.'^ Another 
pressed her hand. She siaid, "No." Another, and then 
another ; still she said, "No." 

After awhile, she became weary, and said, "Gentle- 
men, when I finish weaving the cloth that is now in 
my loom, then I will give you an answer." 

She would weave all day, and at night unravel all 
she had woven. 

Day after day, month after month, year after year, 
she continued 'to weave during the day, and unravel 
at night. 

At the end of twenty long years Ulysses came^ and 
Penelope, rushing into his arms, exclaimed : "O, my 
precious husband ! I have been true to you during 
all these years. I have never given my love to another !" 

The world will never cease to admire the lovely 
Penelope. 

And so, dear reader, if you are longing, above all 
other things, for the Lord Jesus Christ to come and 
eradicate from you the carnal mind, you will have many 
suitors. The world will press its claims, but you will 
say, "No." The flesh will press its claims, but you 
will say, "No." The devil will press his claims, but 
you will say, "No." To every earthly suitor you will 
say, "No." Then Jesus will come to you, "the fairest 
among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely." 
He whom you desired above all others will come. The 
"old man" will go out, and the new man Christ Jesus 
will come in, take up His abode, and abide with you 
forever. 



CHAPTER VII. 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

BEFORE stating the objections and answering them, 
let us notice for a moment the difference between 
regeneration and entire sanctification. This being 
done, we shall see more clearly the import of the ob- 
jections. 

The Bible is very clear as to what regeneration is — 
so clear that he that runs may read. Then the Bible 
is just as clear as to what entire sanctification is. 

Some time ago a distinguis'hed minister of the gospel 
called sanctification a "perplexing subject." How a 
constant and careful reader of the Bible could make 
such a statement as that is to me a great mystery. The 
subject of entire sanctification as taught in the Bible 
is not a perplexing subject at all. It shines forth from 
the Old and New Testament Scriptures in clear and 
cloudless brilliancy. 

Regeneration is a birth. Christ said to Nicodemus, 
''Except a man be born again, he can not see the 
kingdom of God." 

"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born 
again." (John iii, 3-7.) 

Sanctification is a baptism. "He shall baptize you 
with the Holy Ghost and with fire." (Matt, iii, 11.) 

The child must first be bom before it can be bap- 
tized. The one hundred and twenty on the day of 
Pentecost were baptized with the Holy Gho«t. This 
was after their conversion. Regeneration is a birth; 

68 



Objections Answered. 69 

sanctlficatio'n is a baptism. Any child, it seems, can 
see the difference. 

Again, regeneration is the impartation of Hfe. When 
a man is converted, he has imparted to him spiritual 
life. Before he was converted, he was dead in trespasses 
and sin. When converted he is raised from the death 
of sin to a life of righteousness. Inbred sin is called 
''the old man." It is called "the body of sin." "Know- 
ing this that our old m'an is crucified with him, that the 
body of sin might be destroyed." (Rom. vi, 6.) 

In commenting on this passage, Dr. Adam Clarke 
says, " 'The old man' and 'the body of sin' are the 
same as indwelling sin, or the infection of our nature 
in consequence of the fall." 

Sanctificatron is the eradication of the sin that was 
with us when we were born. It is the crucifixion of 
"the old man," the destruction of "the body of sin." 

Inbred sin is the work of the devil. "The Som of 
God was manifested that He might destroy the works 
of the devil." (i John iii, 8.) 

Sanctification eradicates the carnal mind, crucifies 
"the old man," destroys "the body of sin." 

The difference then between conversion and sancti- 
fication must be apparent to every careful reader of the 
Bible. 

Conversion is a birth ; sanctification is a baptism. 
Conversion is life; sanctification is death. The one is 
just the opposite to the other. Now to the objection. 
If by entire sanctification the carnal mind is destroyed, 
"the old man" crucified, "the body of sin" slain, how is 
it possible for it ever to get back into the heart again? 
We know that persons who have been sanctified have 
backslidden, and the same evil tendencies have been 



7© The Shining Way. 

felt in the heart after backsliding that were there before 
they were sanctified. How is it possible for that which 
is dead, crucified^ destroyed, ever to get back into the 
heart again?" We answer: What is death? When 
a man dies, what is it called? Death is not annihilation. 
Death is simply the separation of the soul from the body. 

So the destruction of the carnal mind, the crucifixion 
of ''the old mian," the slaying of "the body of sin" by 
sanctification is not annihilation, but separation. 

As long as the consecration is perfect and the faith 
genuine, the separation will remain. The very moment 
the consecration or the faith becomes defective, that 
moment Satan comes back Into the heart, bringing 
with him the brood of evils that had been cast out? 
Keep distinctively before the mind the fact that the 
destruction of the carnal mind by sanctification is not 
annihilation, but separation, and you will have no trouble 
at this point. 

Another objection to the doctrine of entire sanctifi- 
cation las a second and distinct work, is the following : 

"If entire sanctification destroys the carnal mind, 
or inherited depravity, then the offspring of the en- 
tirely sanctified would be perfectly pure, and free from 
Adamic sin." 

At first blush this seems like a formidable objection. 
But it melts away under the clear light of the Word 
of God, as snow disappears before the burning rays 
of the noonday sun. 

This objection holds good against the doctrine of 
regeneration as well as that of sanctification. If in 
regeneration the heart is made perfectly pure and holy, 
and there is no necessity for a second and distinct work, 
then the offspring of all regenerated persons must be 



Objections Answered. 71 

pure and holy. If the objector denies this, then he 
admits the necessity of a second work, whidi we claim 
the Bible clearly teaches. 

Depravity is judicial, and comes upon the race in 
consequence of Adam's sin, as Paul declares, "By one 
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and 
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned," 
(Rom. V, 12.) 

Here Paul teaches that every human being belong- 
ing to the race sinned in Adam. Depravity, therefore, 
is a race evil, and every member of the race, past, 
present, and future, comes under this evil. 

Salvation is an individual and personal matter. 
Christ does not save the race as a race, nor nations as 
nations, noT communities as communities. But He 
saves individuals as individuals. Bach individual must 
believe for himself if saved. A father by faith may be 
converted and sanctified ; but he does this only for him- 
self. He can not do it for his child. Depravity has 
come upon all by birth, and will be, as Paul clearly 
teaches, coeval with the race of man on earth. "But 
we escape from it not through our fathers, not as a race, 
but one by one, through faith in Hhe blood of the Lord 
Jesus Christ.'' 

The second blessing, "Properly so called," as Mr. 
Wesley says, which includes the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost and fire, and the destruction of the carnal mind, 
is the greatest blessing that ever came to a believer 
this side the gates of glory. Strange that every Chris- 
tian does not at once seek, believe, and receive it. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
THOSE ON THE SHINING WAY SPIRIT-FILLED. 

A FEW years ago the Rev. Mr. Monod thrilled all 
Europe with his wonderful sermons and addresses 
on the baptism of the Holy Ghost. He went not only 
among the laboring classes, but among the royalty as 
well, and he awakened in the minds of all that heard 
him the most intense interest upon this subject. 

Among other things he said, "The Churches believe 
in the Father and the Son to some extent, but hardly 
at all In the Holy Ghost.'' 

The great need of the Churches to-day is faith in 
the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the abiding presence 
of the Paraclete, the third person in the adorable 
Trinity. 

The disciples had been converted before the day 
of Pentecost, and they had the Spirit of God with them 
before that wonderful event. But our Savior said to 
them, while they had the Spirit with them, "I will pray 
the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter." 
(John xlv, 1 6.) . 

The apostles had been born of the Spirit antecedent 
to Pentecost, but at Pentecost they were filled with the 
Spirit. 

Previous to Pentecost they had manifestations of 
the Spirit, and possessed a measure of His marvelous 
presence and power. At Pentecost He came In His 
fullness and He came to abide with them forever." 

The day of Pentecost was an epoch in the religious 

72 



Those on the Shining Way Spirit-filled. 73 

experience of the apostles never to be forgotten. The 
baptism with the Holy Ghost now is an epoch in the 
religious experience of the Christian that stands out 
so prominently and conspicuously that nothing can ever 
erase it from the memory. 

It is the will of God that every Christlian should 
be Spirit-filled. 

Paul said to the Ephesians^ "Be ye not unwise, but 
understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be 
not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled 
with the Spirit.'' (Eph. v, 17, 18.) 

Here the apostle declares that it Is God's will that 
His children should be filled with the Holy Ghost. And 
not only is it His will, but he comm'ands it. 

In the days of the apostles the heathen priests pre- 
tended to be filled with the influence of the god they 
worshiped. If they worshiped Bacchus, the god of 
wine, they admitted they were under his complete 
power and control. A Scythian king desired to be pri- 
vately initiated into the Bacchanalian mysteries of the 
Greeks, and during the initiation he became intoxicated, 
and was as hilarious as any of them. One of the Greeks 
went out to the Scythian army and said : "Ye Scythians 
ridicule us because we celebrate the Bacchanalian feasts 
of the Greeks, and the god possesses us. But now the 
same demon hath taken possession of your king." 

They admitted that any one under the influence of 
liquor was controlled by a demon. 

It is a sad and painful thought that the liquor demon 
to-day, as in the days of the apostles, controls millions. 
The women as well as the men 'are conitrolled by this 
demon. 

It is said that in the city of Loindon there are to-day 



74 The Shining Way. 

three drunken women to one drunken man. And many 
would be very much surprised if they knew how many 
drunken women there are in the cities of our own native 
land. In some the drunken women exceed by far that 
of the men. These drunken women are not seen in 
the saloons, nor reeling on the streets, but are in their 
homes and club-houses. 

A party living in Omaha during the Trans-Mis- 
sissippi Exposition, and who attended the Exposition 
almost every day, told me that on the "Midway" there 
were four drunken women to one drunken man, and 
many of these were young women, and even girls in 
their teens. The liquor demon has his grip upon 
millions. '-^ 

Paul exhorts us not to be drunk with wine, as these 
Greeks were at their Bacchanalian feasts, and henc^ 
were under the complete power and control of the devil"; 
but to be filled wdth the Spirit, and thus be under the 
complete power and control of a holy God. 

Whatever fills us, dominates us — controls us. A 
worldly, pleasure-filled heart is under the complete power 
and control of the pleasures of the world. The pleas- 
ures of the world are his masters. He go-es at their beck 
and nod. 

How like a thunderbolt from a clear sky is death to 
such a one! He sees then, when it is too late, that he 
has spent his life chasing butterflies. iVnd as the grave 
opens, and hell yawns, he can only exclaim, ''The har- 
vest is past, the summer is ended," and my soul is not 
saved. 

A woman of the world, who had spent her whole life 
running after the pleasures of sin, was on her dying- 
bed in one of the hospitals of Lincoln. She sent for 



Those on the Shining Way Spirit-filled. 75 

me to visit her. I went to see her. It was a sad 
sig'ht; I never shall forget it. She ihad moved among 
the gay and frivolous, at the dance, the theater, and 
the fashionable gatherings. She was smiled on and 
flattered by many. At length her health gave way, and, 
reduced to poverty, she was dying in the lonely hos- 
pital. "O," said she, "I have spent my life in folly, 
and there is nothing left for me in the future. O, I 
wish everybody could see the vanity of these earthly 
pleasures as I now see them !" 

I commended her to God, and prayed that He might 
save her, but it seemed that my prayer did not rise very 
high. The room grew dark, and the atmosphere be- 
came murky, and the poor woman went down amid 
the awful gloom. A worldly, pleasure-filled life has 
nothing to look forward to in the future but gloom 
and despair. 

A worldly, business-filled heart and life is dominated 
by the business of the world — under the complete 
power and control of this world. A man may be filled 
with the Spirit of God and pursue any legitimate line 
of business. If filled with the Spirit, God's glory and 
the s'alvation of souls will be first, and his business 
second. A merchant, a no'minal member of a leading 
church, sat in his office busily at work. Letters and 
papers were piled all around him. His whole being was 
absorbed in his business. A zealous friend of religion 
entered his office, and said, "I want to interest you in 
a new efifort for the cause of Christ." 

"Excuse me," said the merchant, "I am very busy; 
I can not attend to that subject now." 

"But," said the zealous friend of religion, "do n't 
you know that vice is alarmingly on the increase in our 



76 The Shining Way. 

midst, and that it becomes us as Christians to do some- 
thing to arrest the terrible evils all about us." 

*T am sorry," said the merchant, "but I am very 
busy; I am very busy.'' 

"Well," said the zealous Christian, "when shall I 
call again?'' 

"'I can not tell. I am very busy; I am always 
busy," and he bowed the intruder out of his office. 
He had frequently repulsed the friends of humanity in 
the same way. 

One morning a disagreeable stranger came into his 
office, stepped very softly to his side, and laying his 
cold, moist hand Lipon his brow, said to him, "I \vant 
you to go with me." The merchant laid down his 
pen ; his head grew dizzy ; he felt sick and faint. He 
arose, left his store, went to his home, entered his 
bed-chamber, and lay dov\'n. 

The imwelcome stranger had followed him, and sit- 
ting down by his bedside and looking him steadily in 
the face, said, "You must go with me." 

Then the merchant recognized the unwelcome stran- 
ger as Death. "O," said he, "I can't die; I am not 
ready to die," and remorse and terror seized him, such 
as he had never felt in all his life before. 

Now, if he had been filled with the Spirit, he would 
not have been terrified; he would not have been filled 
with remorse, but would have said with joy, — 

" Come, welcome death, thou end of fears — 
I am prepared to go;" 

and gathering up his pure spirit, he would have passed 
triumphant to his home in glory. 

A Spirit-filled heart and life is one who is under the 



Those on the Shining Way Spirit-filled. 77 

complete power and control of the Spirit of God. How 
delightful it is to be under the control of the purest, 
sweetest, loveliest Being in the universe ! How in- 
spiring to know that all heaven is smiling upon you! 
He who is filled with the Spirit, is guided by the 
Spirit, kept by the Spirit, comforted by the Spirit, 
empowered by the Spirit. Forth from such a one there 
goes an influence for good that everybody feels. 

The promises of the baptism of the Holy Ghost 
are found all throug'h the Old and New Testament 
Scriptures. They shine out and flame forth from al- 
most every part of God's Word. Nearly six hundred 
years before the advent of Christ, God by the mouth 
of the Prophet Ezekiel said, ''I will put a new spirit 
within you." (Ezek. xi, 19.) 

Then -a little later on, God by the mouth of this same 
prophet said, "I will put my Spirit within you, and 
cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep 
my judgments." (Ezek. xxxvi,, 2']^ 

But the most wonderful promise of the baptism with 
the Holy Ghost found in the Old Testament is given 
by the Prophet Joel, "And it shall come to pass after- 
ward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and 
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old 
men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see 
visions; and also upon the servants and upon the hand- 
maids in those days will I pour out my Spirit." (Joel 
iii, 28, 29.) 

Mark the peculiar phraseology of this wonderful 
pro>mise, "all flesih." This promise was not restricted. 
It was not limited to any class or any sex. It was not 
simply for a highly favored few in the world. It was 
not intended for the ministry alone. This glorious 



78 The Shining Way. 

promise is without limit and without bounds. It covers 
the entire race. It is for every man and woman under 
the gospel dispensation. And we shall show further 
on that this promise, so wide and universal in its com- 
pass, was, in type, fulfilled to the very letter. 

John the Baptist said to the multitudes that 
crowded to his baptism, "I indeed baptize you with 
water unto repentance, but He that cometh after me 
is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to 
bear, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and 
with fire." (:\Iatt. iii, 11.) 

Our Savior said to His desponding disciples just a 
little while before He was crucified, "I will pray the 
Father and He shall give you another Comforter^ that 
He may abide with you forever. (John xiv, 16.) 

Then after His triumphal resurrection from the 
grave, just before He ascended to heaven, He said to 
His apostles, "Behold, I send the promise of My Father 
upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until 
ye be endued with power from on high." (Luke 
xxiv, 49.) 

In the first chapter of Acts, Luke calls the atten- 
tion of the apostles to the sayings of the Savior, and 
the wonderful promises He had made before He left 
the world. 

"Do n't you remember," said he, "the Savior said, 
'Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you ?' " 

Now the question is, were these promises found in 
the Old and New Testament Scriptures fulfilled? 

We shall let St. Peter and St. Luke answer these 
questions. 



Those on the Shining Way Spirit-filled. 79 

Luke says : 

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come^ they 
were all with one accord in one place. 

"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as 
of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house 
where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them 
cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of 
them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit 
gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jeru- 
salem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under 
heaven. 

"Now that this was noised abroad the multitude carri^ 
together and were confounded, because that every man 
heard them speak in his own language. . . . 

"And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, say- 
ing one to another, What meaneth this ? Others mock- 
ing said. These men are full of new wine. 

"But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his 
voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye 
that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and 
hearken to my words ; for these are noft drunken, as ye 
suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But 
this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, And 
it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will 
pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and 
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men 
shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 
And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour 
out in those days of My Spirit." (Acts ii, 1-18.) 

"There was scarcely a tongue in the universe," says 
Dr. Adam Clarke, "that was not to be found among the 



8o The Shining Way. 

Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Jews, Cap- 
padocians, people of Pontus, of Asia, Phrygia, Pam- 
philia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, Rome, Crete, and Arabia." 

So we have Divine authority for saying that the 
prophecy of Joel, that God would pour out His Spirit 
upon all flesh, was fulfilled to the very letter. The repre- 
sentatives of every nation under heaven received this 
wonderful gift. 

And all along the ages, from Pentecost to the present 
day, men and women have received this same fiery bap- 
tism. 

I am glad that the promise of the Father touching 
the baptism with the Holy Ghost is so broad and sweep- 
ing, "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." 

This promise is to the followers of Christ throughout 
all the world, and to all ages down to the end of time. 
It is for us to-day, as well as for the dwellers at Jeru- 
salem eighteen hundred years ago. This wonderful gift 
we may all have. We may have it nozu. We may have 
it simply for the asking. *'God is more walling to give 
the Holy Ghost to them that ask Him than earthly 
parents are to give good gifts unto their children." 



CHAPTER IX. 

THOSE ON THE SHINING WAY SPIRIT-FILLED-CON- 

TINUED. 

I DESIRE, in this chapter, to show the reader just 
how to receive the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost. 
I. If you would be filled with the Spirit, the first step to be 
taken is decision. You must be dktkrminkd. 

Joel says^ "The Lord is near in the valley of decision." 
The battle is more than half won when this point is 
reached. 

If you would be filled with the Spirit, you must be 
willing, if need be, I do not say that it will be necessary, 
but if so, to give up your occupation, have your name 
cast out as evil, and be separated from your nearest and 
dearest earthly friends. You must reach the point where 
you will say, "I will have this great gift, no matter what 
the cost." 

2. The next step to be taken after decision is self- 
dedication. The consecration of every faculty and power 
of body, soul, and spirit forever to the service of God. 

"Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, accept- 
able unto God, which is your reasonable service." (Rom. 
xii, I.) 

Self must die before the Holy Ghost will come in 
and reign supreme in the heart. 

"In Japan they have a beautiful legend of the making 
of a wonderful bell. Ivong, lo-ng ago the emperor wrote 
to the m'aker of bells, commanding him to cast a bell 
larger and more beautiful than any ever made before. 
He bade him put into it gold and silver and brass, that 
6 8i 



82 The Shining Way. 

the tones might be so sweet and clear that, when hung 
in the palace tower, its sounds might be heard for a 
hundred miles. The maker of bells put gold and silver 
and brass in his great melting-pot ; but the metals would 
not mingle, and the bell was a failure. Again and again 
he tried ; but in vain. Then the emperor was angry, and 
sent, saying that if the bell was not made at the next trial 
the bell-maker must die. The bell-maker had a lovely 
daughter. She was greatly distressed for her father. 
Wrapping her mantle about her, she went by night to 
the oracle, and asked how she could save him. He told 
her that gold and brass would not mingle until the blood 
of a virgin was mixed with them in their fusion. 

"Again the old maker of bells prepared to cast the 
bell. The daughter stood by, and at the moment of cast- 
ing she threw herself into the midst of the molten metal. 
The bell was made, and was found to be more wonderful 
and perfect than any other ever made. It hangs in the 
great palace tower, and its sweet tones are heard for a 
hundred miles. The blood of sacrifice, mingling with the 
gold and silver, gave to the bell its matchless sweetness. 
This is only a legend from a heathen land ; but its lesson 
is true. Our lives make no music until self dies, and our 
blood mingles with our ofifering in the altar fires of love. 
It is only when we lose our life for Christ that we get it 
back, saved and glorious." 

The sacrifice we are called to make in order to get 
this wonderful gift is small, after all, compared to the 
riches we receive in return. Years ago Bishop William 
Taylor was holding revival services in Sidney, Australia. 
Penitents were at the altar seeking pardon, and believers 
were there seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost. A 
refined and elegantly-dressed lady bowed at the altar. 



Those on the Shining Way Spirit-filled. 83 

She was a leading member of the Church. As she bowed 
with others, she dehberately made her consecration of 
all to God. When it seemed she had all upon the altar, 
looking down she saw a beautiful diamond ring upon her 
finger. Something said, ''Take off that ring, sell it, and 
give the proceeds to the cause of Christ." She hesitated. 
She prized very highly the ring. It was, in fact, a little 
idol. She tried to pray, but every time she prayed right 
up against that ring. She could make no headway at 
all. After a long, hard struggle she said, "Yes, I^ord; 
I will," and she removed the ring from her finger. The 
very moment she did so the Holy Ghost in marvelous 
power came upon her, flooding her whole soul with light 
and glory such as she had never felt before. She took 
the ring to a jeweler, and told him she wanted to sell it. 
He said he would examine it, and if she would call the 
next day he would pay her what it was worth. The next 
day she called, and the jeweler said, "I have examined 
your ring, and I find the diamond is glass and the gold 
brass, and it is only worth twenty-five cents." It was 
like a great deal of the jewelry worn nowadays. It was 
a sham. Some of the best jewelers tell us that it is hard 
for them to distinguish the false from the true. This lady 
gave a twenty-five-cent ring, and got in return the great- 
est blessing that ever came to a believer this side the 
gates of glory. 

When our consecration is complete and we have laid 
all upon the altar, the sacrifice does not amount to so 
much 'as a twenty-five-oent ring, compared to the rich 
and unspeakable joy that floods the whole soul. 

3. Having reached the point of decision and made 
the perfect consecration, then we are where we can ask 
for the great gift. 



$4 The Shining Way. 

The Holy Ghost now may be had simply for the, ask- 
ing. "Ask and ye shall receive." Any one can ask. 
The child can ask, the sufferer can ask, the unlearned 
as well as the learned can ask. This wonderful gift may 
be had for the asking. 

That little company in that upper room at Jerusalem 
"continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." 
"Jesus also being baptized and praying, the Holy Ghost 
descended in bodily shape like a dove upon Him." 
(Luke iii, 21.) 

"And when they prayed the place was shaken, and 
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." (Acts iv, 31.) 

"God is more willing to give the Holy Ghost to them 
that ask Him than earthly parents are to give good gifts 
unto their children." 

These instances show clearly that the Holy Ghost 
may be had for the asking. 

(i) Our asking must be definite. We must ask for 
the Holy Ghost. Ask for Him. Not simply for a bless- 
ing, not simply for feeling, not simply for great emotion. 
But we are to ask for the Holy Ghost, that He, as a per- 
son, may oome, take up His aibode, and abide with us 
forever. 

Mr. Moody says that early in his religious life he was 
called on to pray a^t a prayer-meeting. He prayed very 
earnestly for the influence of the Holy Ghost. At the 
close of the meeting an old Christian, a man deeply 
versed in Divine things, said to him, "Why did you 
pray for the iniiuence of the Holy Ghost ? Never again 
pray for the iniiuence of the Holy Ghost. Pray for the 
Holy Ghost. Get Him." "And," said Moody, "I have 
never since prayed for the iniiuence of the Holy Ghost." 

Dr. S. A. Keen, that wonderful man of God, who 



Those on the Shining Way Spirit-filled. 85 

went up to heaven in a chariot of song, relates the fol- 
lowing: 

"Some years since, when a pastor in the city of Co- 
lumbus, Ohio, entering a large manufacturing estalb- 
lishment on Monday morning we met <a brother whom 
we had known years before. We fell into a few minutes 
Christian conversation. In the midst of the interview 
he said, almost abruptly : *I wish I knew I am a child 
of God. I have been a. Christian for eighteen years. I 
am class-leader and Sunday-school superintendent. I 
wo'uld not give up my effort to live and work for God. 
But O, it is so hard to get on when yo>u do not know 

you are saved !' We said to him, 'Brother D , there 

is nothing your Father wants you to know so much as 
that you are saved.' 'Tell me,' said he, 'how I am to 
know.' 'The next time you pray, just say to the Lord, 
O Lord, give me Thy Holy Spirit, that I may know I 
am a child of Thine. You will do it, Amen.' Just one 
week after, I met him on the street ; he was coming toward 
me, walking rapidly with his head up, having a gait and 
an air unusual for him. We greeted him, saying, 'How 

are you. Brother D ?' In a tone of voice unnaturally 

loud for him he exclaimed, 'O ! it is all right.' 'What is 
all right ?' He responded, 'Why, I am a child of God, 
and I know it.' 'How long have you known it?' 'O ! a 
whole week. It is glorious. It makes every duty light.' 
'Tell us how it all came about.' 'Well, after our interview 
a week ago I was very busy all day. I did not get time 
even for secret prayer. I went home in the evening. 
After supper we had Our family prayer. When I had 
prayed for the family, for the Church, for my class and 
Sabbath-school, and was about to conclude, I thought of 
myself. I remembered what you said in the morning, 



S6 The Shining Way. 

and I looked up and in my heart said, ''O Lord, give 
me Thy Holy Spirit, that I may know that I am Thine. 
You will do it. Amen." I got up, went and sat down 
before the fire, and began to read the evening paper. 
But I let the paper drop. I could not read. I said to 
myself. My! I never felt like this before. Such a sense 
of light, and warmth, and tenderness ! I just folded my 
arms, leaned back in my chair, and took in the delight- 
ful emotion, W'hen all at once it broke upon my soul. 
Abba Father, child of God, and I have known for a whole 
week that I am saved.' " 

This brother asked for the Holy Ghost, and he got 
just what he asked for. And what this brother received, 
every believer in Christ may have. 

(2) We must be in earnest when we ask. Many pray, 
and they receive no answers to their prayers, simply 
because they are not in earnest when they pray. 

It is said that a man in great trouble went to Soc- 
rates and said to him : "Socrates, I am in great trouble. 
I wo'uld be glad if you would undertake my case, and 
become my advocate." "No, I shall not undertake your 
case," said Socrates. The man went away. The next 
day, in thinking over the matter, he said to himself, 
"Now, if Socrates does not undertake my case and be- 
come my advocate, I am a ruined man." He went back, 
and said : "Socrates, you must take my case. If you do 
not, I am ruined forever." "Very well," said Socrates, 
"I will. You are in earnest to-day ; yesterday you were 
not." 

So if we would have the Holy Ghost come into our 
hearts, take up His abode, and abide there forever, our 
request must be an urgent one. 

Our desire for Him must be greater than for any 



Those on the Shining Way Spirit-filled. 87 

other object in all the wide world. If Jacob-like we cry, 
"I will not let Thee go; come now, this very moment," 
He will come. He will not tarry. 

(3) We must ask m faith. 

''What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe 
that ye receive them^ and ye shall have them." (Mark 
xi, 24.) 

There are many things that hinder our faith. Many 
years ago one of the best women in the State of Nebraska 
was earnestly praying for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. 
I said to her: "What is the trouble? Why can't yo>u 
believe that He will come now?" She replied: ''I am 
afraid if I receive this baptism, the Holy Ghost will 
tell me to do what I can not do. He may tell me to go 
and kneel down right in the streets of Lincoln and pray 
for ungodly men, and I can't do that." I said to her: 
"The Holy Ghost will never tell you to do an unreason- 
able or foolish thing. The devil may; but the Holy 
Ghost never will. If, however, you desire the Holy 
Ghost, you must be wilHng to be led by Him." 

This temptation, that the Holy GhOst would want her 
to do some outlandish thing, something repugnant to 
her whole nature, stood right in the way of her faith. 
She saw the temptation, and then said, *'0 Lord, give 
me Thy Holy Spirit, and I will do whatever He tells me 
to do." And as she offered this prayer, her faith took 
hold on God, and the Holy Ghost in wondrous power 
came upon her, and from that day on she became one 
of the most successful soul-winners in Nebraska. 

A brother once went to his pasftor, and said : "I do 
not know what is the matter with me; my spiritual life 
is so weak and miserable. I am not satisfied at all. I 
do want the Holy Ghost in His fullness." The pastor 



88 



The Shining Way. 



began to ply questioiis. Finally he said, "You have 
family prayer ?" "No," said the man ; "I know I ought 
to, and have felt so for years/* "And you say," said the 
pastor, "you do not know what the matter is? The 
matter is, you are leaving undone a known duty. Have 
family worship to-night." He did. The hindrance to 
his faith was gone. The Holy Ghost at once, in all His 
fullness, came upon him. Just so it is with many Chris- 
tians. There are some things they are not willing to do, 
or there are some things they are not willing to give up. 
And these things stand right in the way of their faith ; 
and as long as they remain, it is an utter impossibility 
for them to believe. 

But when they reach the point that they are prefectly 
willing to give up everything that is even of a question- 
able character, and are perfectly willing to do anything 
the Holy Ghost may ask them to do, then every obstacle 
to their faith is swept out of the way, and they can be- 
lieve as easily as they breathe, and, believing, the mighty 
baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire will fall upon them. 

If, then, you would have the Holy Ghost, ask — ask 
definitely, ask urgently, ask believingly. And He will 
come as certainly as th'e sun shines at midday. He will 
come, flooding your soul with light and joy and glory, 
such as the world and a formal Church knows nothing 
at all about. 



CHAPTER X. 
THOSE ON THE SHINING WAY POWER-ENDUED. 

YE shall receive power after that the Holy Ohost is 
come upon you/' is the promise of the Savior to 
His trusting and obedient children throughout all the 
ages. 

With this wonderful promise before us, why is it that 
there is so little power in the Churches to-day? Why 
so little power in the pulpit ? Why so little power in the 
pew ? Why so few conversions ? Why so few of the old- 
time, sweeping, moving, community-storming revivals? 
Why the cry everywhere, "The Church is declining?" 
etc. Why are the members of the Churches running to 
the theaters, crowding the ball-rooms, pressing around 
the card-tables, and doing almost everything that an 
ungodly world is doing? 

The answer is easy. Ministers and members have 
failed to comply with the command, "Tarry until ye be 
endued with power from on high." Ministers and mem- 
bers are not filled with the Holy Ghost ; hence we have 
a powerless pulpit and a powerless pew. 

Get the Holy Ghost, and the same power that was 
manifested on the day of Pentecost will be seen to-day. 
Pentecost may be duplicated. 

"Our Fathers had this power, 
And we may have it too," 

for God is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. We 
often hear it said bv ministers and laymen : "Times have 

89 



90 The Shining Way. 

changed. Society has changed. Our environments are 
entirely different from what they formerly were. Our 
methods for building up the Church, therefore, must be 
different. We can no longer depend upon the agencies 
and methods used by our fathers in building up Christ's 
kingdom." 

We have heard these statements so often that we 
have become utterly sick and disgusted with them. 
Many, however, who make these statements are perfectly 
sincere, and believe in their hearts just what they say. 
But they are mistaken — sadly mistaken. They are un- 
consciously deceived. These statements are false. Nat 
a word of truth in them. They are the suggestions of 
the evil one^ the cunning snares thrown out by the arch 
deceiver of the race to entrap the unsuspecting and the 
unwary. And thousands on thousands of intelligent men 
and wo'men are being caught in these snares. 

While times may have changed and society changed, 
and our environments may be different from what they 
formerly were, God is the same, Christ is the same, the 
Holy Ghost is the same, the devil is the same, sin is the 
same, and human nature is the same. The very same 
agencies and methods used by our fathers to save men, 
and that were efficient in saving them, will save men now. 

From Pentecost to this day, without any exception, 
w^henever the pulpit and the pew have been baptized with 
the Holy Ghost, then the power of God in the salvation 
of souls has been manifested. 

Let all our ministers and members get the blessing 
of holiness, and the cry will no longer be heard, "The 
Church has lost its power," "The Church is declining." 
Holiness is power. It always has been so ; it always 
will be so. 



Those on the Shining Way Power-endued. 91 

*'Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost 
is come upon you." 

When the Holy Ghost comes into the heart in His 
fullness, He comes in His purifying and sanctifying 
power. What is this power that attends the wholly- 
sanctified? One has said, *'It is God Himself in us by 
the presence of the Holy Ghost, imparting to us the 
Divine energy, whioh works through our person'ality, 
whether that be great 'or small." It is that strange, 
mysterious thing that we call unction in prayer, testi- 
mony, and preaching, which awakens, comforts, and 
blesses souls. This unction is the indwelling of the 
Holy Ghost, the abiding presence of the Paraclete. 

It is true great ideas wield a wonderful power in the 
world. Brilliant thoughts that sparkle and glitter as 
they roll from the Hps of the silver-tongued orator exer- 
cise a magic influence over the hearers. But great ideas 
do not save men. Brilliant thoughts, eloquently ex- 
pressed, do not save men. 

Read Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost. That 
sermon contains no great ideas, no brilliant thoughts. 
And yet that simple sermon, devoid of great ideas and 
brilliant thoughts, moves the hearts of that great throng 
as the trees of the forest are swayed in the midst of a 
mighty tempest. And all over that vast assembly the 
cry is heard from the lips of thousands, "What shall 
we do?" 

A oongregaition had assembled for worship. The 
hour for service had arrived. But the preacher was not 
present. That preacher was the saintly John Fletcher. 
He vra.s a man of prayer. History tells us that his knees 
were callious, and the wall before which he kneeled was 
stained with his breath from his long continuance in 
prayer. 



92 



The Shining Way. 



A messenger was sent to tell Fletcher that the con- 
gregation was waiting for him. The messenger returned, 
and said to those who sent him : "He is in his room talk- 
ing with some one. I overheard him say, 'I will not 
go unless you gc with me.* " In a little while he came, 
and the other one came with him. He preached, and 
the congregation was moved and melted under his power- 
ful and overwhelming appeals. 

What we need as ministers, over and above and be- 
yond all other things, is "The other One.'' O God, may 
Thy ministering servants all over the land never go into 
their pulpits unless "The other One" goes wath them ! 

There is a strange and mysterious power attending 
the words of the wholly-sanctified, that can be explained 
only on the ground that God Almighty is in the heart 
of the speaker, and that He carries the words to the 
hearts of His hearers. 

A consecrated woman said to a worldly man, "Albert, 
you ought not to lose your soul." He could not get 
away from these simple words. They weighed upon his 
heart until he broke down in contrition and became a 
Christian. Similar words had been spoken to him often, 
without any effect whatever; but she spoke them in the 
power of the Spirit. 

The cultured and skeptical Lord Chesterfield said 
of Fenelon, in whose company he had been thrown, "He 
will make a Christian out of me in spite of myself, if I 
remain long with him." 

The employees of a large mill in New England quit 
their lathes and began to weep and pray, as Charles G. 
Finney simply walked about the factory. 

One of the early preachers of Methodism, while 
preaching on the sto-ry of Gideon's victory, shouted out, 



Those on the Shining Way Power-endued. 93 

''The sword of the Lord — and Gideon," swayed his hand 
to the right, and people fell by the score to the ground ; 
he repeated the words, swayed his hand to the left, and 
they fell in like numbers in that direction. This preacher, 
like Fenelon, Finney, and the lady above referred to, 
were power-endued, because they bad the Holy Ghost. 
The late Rev. J. J. Roberts, a member of the Ne- 
braska Conference, some thirty years ago related to me 
the following. Said he : "I have just received a letter 

from my old friend and classmate. Dr. B . He is the 

pastor of the largest Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Indianapolis. He is cultured, and one of the finest and 
ablest preachers in Methodism. In his letter he says : 
'There is one thing I can not possibly understand. I 
have been holding revival services in my Church for six 
wrecks, and have only had five or six conversions. A 

neighboring pastor. Brother A , has been holding 

meetings the same length of time, and he has had over 
three hundred conversions. This man is not educated, and 
he murders the king's English every time he preaches, 
and they say 'he can't preach at all. Notwithstanding all 
this, his church is crowded, and souls by the hundreds 
are being saved, and his converts are among the most 
refined and intelligent men and women of the city of 
Indianapolis. I can't understand this. I am amazed, 
and utterly dumfounded.' " Brother Roberts said in 

substance : "The fact is. Brother A is filled with the 

Holy Ghost, and Dr. B is not. I intend to write 

Dr. B a kind, but very plain letter. I shall tell him 

that ministers get what they preach for. If they preach 
alone for souls, and are filled with the Holy Ghost, they 
will have souls. If they aim to preach fine sermons and 
to please the people^ they will, more than likely, receive 



94 The Shining Way. 

the praifse and honors of the world, but they will have 
few stars in their crown of rejoicing." 

Peter was power-endued, and three thousand souls 
were converted under one sermon. Stephen was power- 
endued, and none were ''able to resist the wisdom and 
spirit with which he spake." The disciples were power- 
endued, and "multitudes believed." Barnabas w^as 
power-endued, and ''much people was added to the 
Lord." Wesley was power-endued, and the Methodist 
Episcopal Church sprang into existence, has girdled the 
globe, and its magic and helpful influence is felt by 
millions. James Caughey was power-endued, then called 
into the evangelistic work, and like a, spiritual cyclone 
moved through Canada, the Eastern States, and Eng- 
land, and thousands on thousands were saved. Charles 
G. Finney was power-endued, and wherever he went the 
power of God attended 'him ; men, women, and children 
were moved, melted, converted, and swept into the king- 
dom of Christ. Phoebe Palmer was power-endued, and 
twelve thousand souls were converted, and more than 
that number sanctified. Thomas Harrison was power- 
endued, and in twenty-three years sixty thousand souls 
are converted and thousands sanctified. William Taylor, 
our late African Bishop, was power-endued, and his con- 
verts in every land may be numbered by thousands, in 
North and South America, India, Africa, Australia, and 
the islands of the seas. Then there is Keen, Carradine, 
Moody, Hammond, and a great multitude of others we 
might name, whose mighty power the world has felt 
because they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. O, 
why do n't all our preachers and all our laymen see what 
is the great element of success in soul-saving! Men 



Those on the Shining Way Power-endued. 95 

filled with the Holy Ghost are power-endued, and are 
soul- winners. Without this, they are shorn of their 
strength, and weak as other men. Any one power- 
endued may be a soul-winner. 

I heard E. P. Hammond, the great evangelist, relate 
the following. He said in substance : Years ago I was 
well acquainted with a lady in Washington. She was a 
leading member of a large Church in that city. Her 
husband, Major Hall, was a gambler, and very profane. 
Mrs. Hall became dissatisfied with her religious experi- 
ence. She sought and obtained the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost. After receiving this wonderful baptism she be- 
came intensely interested about the conversion of her 
husband. She saw his danger as never before. She 
began earnestly to pray for his salvation. One Friday 
night S'he went into her room, determined to pray until 
God answered her prayer. Hour after hour she wrestled 
with God in mighty supplication. At fo^ur o'clock the 
next morning she got the answer that God would save 
her husband. As soon as day dawned she ran over to 
a neighbor, and in a somewhat excited manner said : 
*'My husband is going to be converted. I received an 
answer to my prayer at four o'clock this morning, that 
he would be saved." The neighbor said to other friends : 
"Mrs. Hall is going crazy. She is losing her mind." 

When men and women get filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and become terribly in earnest about the salvation of 
souls, then the world and formal members of the Church 
begin to cry, "They are crazy," "They are becoming un- 
balanced," "They are a little ofif," etc. An ungodly world 
has always talked that way about those who are very 
near God. 



g6 The Shining Way. 

From Pentecost to the present day jx>wer-endued men 
and women have often been called "cranks," "fanatics," 
"crazy," etc. 

Weli, it was Saturday morning at four o'clock when 
Mrs. Hall got the answer that her husband would be 
converted. That Saturday night IMajor Hall went to the 
gambling-hall, played cards until near midnight. At 
the close of a game, he pushed the cards back on the 
table, and said to the men that sat around him : "Gentle- 
men, I have played the last game of cards I ever intend to 
play. I shall never throw another card while I live. I 
am going to get religion, join the Church, and go with 
my wife to heaven." 

The next morning while his wife was preparing for 
Church he said to her, "Wife, I believe I will go to 
Church with you to-day." "O," said ^Irs. Hall, "I am 
so glad to hear you say that. I shall be delighted to have 
you go with me." He went with his wife to Church. 
At the close of the sermon an opportunity was given for 
persons to join the Church, and Major Hall arose, de- 
liberately walked do^\Ti the aisle to the chancel, and gave 
the minister his hand. It was like a thunderbolt from 
a clear sky to the congregation. He was the last person 
in the community that they w^ould have suspected of 
joining the Church and of becoming a Christian. That 
night he was clearly and powerfully converted. Then 
the people began to make remarks : "He won't hold out 
four weeks," "He will be as bad as ever in a few days," 
"He w^ill never give up 'his old associates," and similar 
slighting remarks were made abo>ut him. 

Said Hammond : "A number of years afterwards I 
went back to that Church. I found the ladies busily 
decorating the inside of the building. The platform was 



I 



Those on the Shining Way Power-endued. 97 

covered with potted plants, festoons were being hung 
from the ceiHng and on the walls. I said : 'Ladies, what 
are you doing?' 'Decorating the church.' 'What are 
you decorating the church for?' 'Why,' said they, 'to- 
morrow is the anniversary of Major Hall's conversion. 
We always celebrate the anniversary of the conversion 
of Major Hall.' " "And I learned," said Hammond, 
"that Major Hall had been instrumental in leading three 
hundred men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ since 
his conversion." 

Mrs. Hall received the enduement of power, then she 
led her husband to Christ, and her husband led three 
hundred men and women to the Savior. Power-endued 
Christians are soul-winners. 

"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost 
is come upon you." 

Napoleon once said to an officer of his staff, on the 
eve of a great battle, "How strong is the line?" "So 
many thousand," replied the officer. "Your master is at 
fault," rejoined the emperor. "Count me ten thousand.'' 
He who was the strength and inspiration of the line had 
been left out. 

So until the Holy Ghost comes into the soul in His 
fullness and power, "He is not counted upon as the 
horseman and chariot of Israel, whose presence and 
power alone insures victory." 

The Church whose pastor and members are power- 
endued is invincible. Such a Church will succeed any- 
where and amid any surroundings. 

Bishop Simpson preached some years ago in Me- 
morial Hall, London. For half an hour he spoke quietly, 
without gesticulation or the uplifting of his voice. Then 
picturing the Son of God bearing our sins in His own 
7 



98 The Shining Way. 

body on the tree, he stooped as if laden with an immeas- 
urable burden, and rising to his full height he seemed 
to throw it from him, crying: "How far? As far as the 
east is distant from the west, so far 'hath He removed our 
transgressions from us." The whole assembly, as if 
moved by an irresistible impulse, rose, remained stand- 
ing for a second or two, then sank back into their seats. 
A professor of elocution was there. A friend who ob- 
served him, and knew that he had come to criticise, asked 
him when the service was over, "Well, what do you think 
of the bishop's elocution?" "Elocution?" said he, "that 
man do n't want elocution ; he 's got the Holy Ghost." 

The Holy Ghost is a gift, a gift proffered to every 
child of God. It is a wonderful gift. The most wonder- 
ful gift in all the wide world. It is natural for us to 
shrink back and say : "I am unworthy of such a great 
gift. It is too much for me to receive." It is said that 
the Emperor Alexander was once riding out with his 
body-guard, when he turned and presented to one of his 
humblest servants a magnificent golden cup. The poor 
vassal, embarrassed, drew back and said, "General, it is 
too much for me." Hesitating a moment, the emperor 
thrust it into his hand, and said, "It is not too much 
for me to give." 

So many shrink from taking this great and wonderful 
gift of the Holy Ghost, saying, "I am unworthy ; it is too 
much for me to receive." But Jesus, with His own hand, 
stained with the blood that bought it for you, presses it 
into your hand of faith, saying: "This is not too much 
for me to give. Take it." 

Reader, take it by faith. Take this wonderful gift 
now, this very moment, while you read this sentence, and 
the power of the God of the universe will be upon you. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THOSE ON THE SHINING WAY HAVE "THE SATISFYING 

PORTION." 

THK following are Mr. Webster's definitions of the 
term, Satisfy : "To fill up the measure of a want (of 
a person or thing), hence to gratify fully the desire of; 
to make content ; to supply to the full ; to free from 
doubt, suspense, or uncertainty." 

The fully saved soul has this wonderfully satisfying 
grace. The measure of his v/ant is full. The full desire 
of his soul is gratified. He is content. He is free from 
doubt, free from suspense, free froni uncertainty, free 
from anxious care. What a blessed state this is ! How 
grand, how hig'h, how rich, how sweet, how glorious ! 
It can not be described. To be fully understood it must 
be experienced. 

The Word of God abounds with the most positive 
and precious promises touching "the satisfying por- 
tion :" 

"I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and 
My people shall be satisfied vv^ith My goodness, saith the 
Lord." (Jer. xxxi, 14.) 

"The fear of the Lord tendeth to life; and he that 
hath it shall abide satisfied." (Prov. xix, 23.) 

"They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness 
of thy house ; and thou shalt make them drink of the 
river of thy pleasures." (Psalm, xxxvi, 8.) 

"He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry 
soul with goodness." (Psalm cvii, 9.) 

David cries out in exultations of joy: "Bless the 
Lord, O my soul ; and all that is within me, bless His 

99 



loo The Shining Way. 

holy name. . . . Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; 
who healeth all thy diseases. . . Who satisfieth the 
mouth with good things ; so that thy youth is renewed 
hke the eagles." (Psalm ciii.) 

Then read that wonderful Thirty-seventh Psalm, 
where David contrasts the happy state of the godly with 
the short-lived prosperity of the wicked. 

Again says David, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, 
with Thy likeness." (Psalm xvii, 15.) 

David does not refer here to the resurrection of the 
body ; but, as Dr. Adam Clarke says, "to the resurrection 
of the soul in this life ; to the regaining the image which 
Adam lost." 

God alone can satisfy the wishes of an immortal soul. 
God made the soul with infinite capacities, and an infinite 
God alone can meet and gratify these desires. No soul 
was ever fully gratified but by God, and He satisfies the 
soul only by restoring it to His image, which was lost 
in the fall. When the believer, therefore, reaches the 
shining way of holiness, and is made partaker of the 
Divine nature, has the carnal mind removed, is filled 
with holiness and moral perfection, then he is satisfied. 
Those on the shining way of holiness have therefore 
"the satisfying portion." 

They are satisfied. Not in a sense that they can not 
grow, and enjoy more and more. Not that they have 
done all they could for God and humanity. The purest 
people that walk the earth feel most keenly that they are 
unprofitable servants. But they are satisfied that they 
are perfectly saved; that the blood of Jesus Christ His 
Son cleanseth them from all sin ; that all things are work- 
ing together for their good ; that they are ready to live or 
ready to die ; ready for earth or ready for heaven ; ready 
for anything God Almighty wants of them in this or any 



**The Satisfying Portion." ioi 

other world. Glory to His name forever ! The one hun- 
dred and twenty in that upper rooim at Jerusalem had 
received an experience which prepared them not only 
for living, but for serving, preaching, suffering, and 
dying. No matter what was said about them, or done 
to them; no m'atter whether slandered, scourged, im- 
prisoned, or slain, — all through the trial and to the end 
there was such faith, holy triumph, and rapturous joy 
that all could see that beyond the tormented body there 
were spiritual regions where the earthly tortures could 
not come. "Thus, back there and up there was a so'me- 
thing which consoled and comforted and compensated 
the suffering followers of Jesus beyond all words to de- 
scribe and thought to understand." And thousands all 
along the ages, froim Pentecost to the present, have felt 
this same rapturous thrill, unspeakable, and triumphant 
joy. 

"As an experience it affected and does still affect 
God's people like wine. The multitude honestly sup- 
posed for a time at Pentecost that the one hundred and 
twenty were drunk. There is a question in my mind 
whether the multitude believed these men were drunk. 
From Acts ii, 13, I infer it was asserted by scoffers and 
in mockery. Men seem to be as slow to understand 
God's works to-day 'as they were in the beginning of the 
first century. Nevertheless the experience is with us 
still, a great, glad, upwelling, perfectly satisfying joy, 
whether people understand it and us, or not. Who in 
such a weary, he'art-breaking world as this would not 
have it ? Who on hearing of such a grace could ever rest 
content until its obtainment?" 

There are times when "the satisfying portion" is 
especially blessed and glorious ; blessed at all times ; and 
yet there are times when it is unspeakably blessed. 



I02 The Shining Way. 

Dr. Carradine says : 

"When a boy, we remember that our mother was 
accustomed to make, in addition to her pickles and pre- 
serves, a certain amount of blackberry cordial. She 
placed the rich, sweet, fragrant fiuid in bottles, and sta- 
tioned them in a row on a shelf in the closet. To this 
day I can recall their soldier-like appearance with white 
paper labels on their black sides, containing the words 
'Blackberry Cordial,' written in mother's beautiful hand- 
writing-. 

"The cordial was a kind of panacea for children's 
maladies and troubles. More than once, on account of 
failing appetite, or some bruise or cut received by a 
topple from the fence or a fall from a tree, a sip of the 
cordial would be given the weeping youngster, and his 
lips smacked with enjoyment, and a pleased smile would 
overspread his face while the tears still rested in heavy 
drops in the eyelashes. 

"So God has a cordial which is a compensation for 
the blows, cuts, and bruises received at the hands of 
men. It is quickly placed to the lips when cruel words 
have been spoken, or heartless blows have been struck, 
and at once the pangs are forgotten, the soul is warmed 
and fired, the mouth is filled with laughter, and we walk 
unburned in the furnace, and in rapturous communion 
with the form of a Fourth, which is the Son of God. Who 
of us have not felt these things, and can testify that onr 
happiest days have been when men were saying and 
doing all manner of evil against us !" 

This satisfying portion is with the believer, not only 
in prosperity and in the hour of sore persecution, but in 
the hour of deepest sorrow. 

I once read of an old minister of the gospel who 
sought and obtained the blessing of entire sanctification. 



'^The Satisfying Portion." 103 

He stepped out by faith on the beautiful highway of 
hohness. From that time on he had a rich, sweet, and 
abiding joy, such as he had never had in all his life 
before. 

Some time after he came into this wonderfully satis- 
fying experience, the greatest trial of his life came upon 
him. He was eighty years old. One morning he learned 
that his son, a promising young lawyer, had been mur- 
dered by a Negro man for the sake of a few dollars. 
Tihe peculiarly agonizing feature about the crime was 
that the young man had been shot and left ior dead in 
the woods, but had lived four days stretched on the 
ground alone in the forest. A hunter discovered him a 
little while before he died, and received from his dying 
lips the name of the murderer and the manner of the 
crime. When the news reached the aged father he sank 
upon his knees on the floor in prayer, and in a few 
moments gasped out, "The Book ! the Book !" The 
Bible was handed him, and, opening with trembling fin- 
gers the pages, he began reading aloud with shaking 
voice, in the midst of the sighing, sobbing household, 
froim the fourteenth chapter of John : "Let not your 
heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in Me. 
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare 
a place for you, I will come again" — ^and, lo ! while read- 
ing these last four words the glory of God filled him, 
shouts burst forth from his lips, and a halo of unearthly 
glory settled upon his brow, such as his friends had never 
seen before. 

This satisfying portion is for every child of God that 
walks the earth. Reader, step out by faith on God's 
immutable promises, take Jesus Christ as your "wisdom, 
righteousness, sanotification, and redemption," and the 
satisfying portion will be yoiurs. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THOSE ON THE SHINING WAY FREE FROM THE 
TRAMMELS OF FAITH. 

ON the third morning after the crucifixion the Marys 
went to the sepulcher for the purpose of complet- 
ing the work of embalming the Savior's body. As they 
drew near to the -tomb they said among themselves, 
"Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the 
sepulcher?" They knew that it was heavy and large, 
and that they could not possibly remove it without aid. 
Nevertheless, they went right forward ; they were not 
retarded a single moment from their purpose, and when 
they reached the sepulcher "they found the stone rolled 
away." 

Here is a lesson for us. When men have strong faith 
in God, obstacles do not keep them from undertaking 
what they feel in their hearts God wants them to do. 
They do no't stop to discuss difficulties. They do not 
take into consideration surroundings. They know very 
well that God can sweep out of the way all obstacles and 
difficulties, and that He will do it if He has to send an 
angel as He did to roll the stone from the way of the 
Marys. 

When they reached the sepulcher they were sur- 
prised to find it vacant. And as they stood by the empty 
tomb, overwhelmed with wonder and amazement, two 
angel's clad in shining white appeared unto them, and 
said : "Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified ; 
he is risen ; he is not here ; behold the place where they 

104 



Trammels of Faith. 105 

laid Him. But go your way, tell His disciples and 
Peter." Mark xvi, 6, 7.) 

They left the sepulcher, hurried away to the eleven, 
and told them all that had transpired. But their words 
to the eleven ''seemed to them as idle tales." Peter, the 
impetuous, the impulsive, the enthusiastic Peter, deter- 
mined to know for himself, and, leaving the others, ran 
with all his might to the tomb, and stooping down and 
looking in he found it vacant, just as the women had 
declared. 

That day two of the disciples, Cleopas and doubtless 
Luke, were on their way to Emmaus, a village some 
seven miles from Jerusalem. And as they walked along 
the highway conversing with each other, the Savior drew 
near,, and withotit letting Himself be known, said unto 
them, ''What manner of communications are these that 
ye have one to another, as ye walk and are sad ?" They 
said unto Him, "Art Thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, 
and hast not known the things which are come to pass 
there in these days ?" Still keeping Himself unknown, the 
Savior said to them, "What things?" Then they told 
Him of Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty 
in word and deed before God and all the people ; how the 
chief priests had delivered Him to the people, and that 
He had been tried, condemned, crucified, and buried, and 
that very morning certain women went to the tomb 
wherein He was laid, and they found it vacant ; and while 
there they beheld a vision of 'angels which said that 
He was alive ; and that one of their number had gone 
to the tomb, and he found it vacant just as the woman 
had declared. Then the Savior said to them, "O fools, 
and slow of heart to believe.'' It seems that these disci- 
ples ought not to have been slow to believe. They had 



io6 The Shining Way. 

the prophecies touching the death and resurrection of 
the Savior. They had studied these prophecies, and 
understood them. They had been with Christ for years, 
and had heard Him say time and again that He would 
die and that He would rise again. They had seen 
miracle after miracle performed by Him — many of them 
the most stupendous and wonderful, proving beyond 
even the shadow of a doubt His Divinity. Then the 
prophecies and words of the Savior touching His resur- 
rection had been literally fulfilled before their eyes. So 
we say, they ought not to have been slow to believe. 

But these disciples that were at first slow to be- 
li-eve, did afterwards believe, and they believed with 
all their hearts ; then they proclaimed their faith to the 
world, and finally sealed their faith with their own blood. 

It is a lamentable fact that the lesson of faith is a 
lesson the masses of the people are slow to learn. It is 
a lesson the unconverted are slow to learn. It is a lesson 
that man}^ in the Churches are very slow to learn. 
Faith in God — in His promises revealed to us in the 
Bible — is a simple, reasonable, common-sense thing. 
And all this talk we sometimes hear about the inco'm- 
prehensible mystery of faith, I have thought, was an 
outrage upon our common sense, and a grave, not to 
say a wicked, charge against the Almighty. It as- 
sumes that God has suspended the salvation of men on 
conditions that are hard to be understood. That 's 
false. Not a word of truth in it. The plan of salva- 
tion revealed to us in the Scriptures is so simple, plain, 
and easily to be understood, that the wayfaring man, 
though a fool, need not err therein. 

Faith in God is a reasonable, common-sense thing. 
Unbelief is an unreasonable, God-dishonoring thing. 



4 

* 



* 



Trammels of Faith. 107 

No attorney in any court of justice ever had such an 
overwhelming 'array of evidence to prove his case as 
Christians have to prove the Divinity of the Christian 
reHgion. 

Without attempting to discuss the evidences of 
Chris'tiand'ty, I desire in this chapter more especially 
to call the attention of the reader to some of the tram- 
mels of faith from which the entirely sanctified are 
delivered. 

I. Many are slow to beheve because they are slow 
to give up sin. This is the great trammel of faith. Men 
are no't willing to part with sin. They are not willing 
to surrender the last idol. They hold on to sin with a 
death-grip, and hence are slow to believe. 

When I am called on to instruct a penitent at the 
altar, or anywhere else, I do not begin by saying, ''Be- 
lieve, believe, and you shall be saved." I first endeavor 
to find out whether the person really feels the need 
of salvation. If he really feels the need of salvation, 
then I endeavor to find out whether he is ready 
to quit, at once and forever, all he knows is wrong. 
If there is any hesitancy at this point, I do not say 
to him, "Believe," because I know it is an utter 
impossibility for him to believe. He is not yet on be- 
lieving ground. 

But when a man really feels the need of salvation, 
and is ready to divorce himself, at once and forever, 
fro^m all he knows is wrong, then he can believe an 
the Ivord Jesus Christ for salvation as easily as an 
inflated balloon shoots skywiard when every cord that 
binds it to the earth is severed. 

Sin, actual and inherited, is the great trammel of 
faith. When actual sin is all pardoned, and inherited 



io8 The Shining Way. 

sin is cleansed away by the mighty power of Jesus* 
blood, then the sanctified soul is free from this trammel 
of faith, and can believe as easily as he can breathe. 

2. Another trammel of faith is a misapprehension 
of God's method of salvation. As plain and clear as 
God's method of salvation is revealed to us in the Bible, 
and it is revealed to us in God's Word as clear as lan- 
guage can reveal anything, men are constantly misap- 
prehending it. Penitents seeking pardon misapprehend 
it; backsliders seeking reclamation misapprehend it; 
Christians seeking holiness misapprehend it. God's 
method of salvation is by faith alone, and not by works. 
This fact is taught in God's Word as clear as the noon- 
day sun. 

We are justified by faith ; we are sanctified by faith ; 
we are kept by faith ; we overcome by faith ; we are 
glorified by faith. And yet as plain and clear as these 
declarations are made in God's Word, men are con- 
stantly trying to do something to save themselves, and 
hence are slow to believe. 

A coimmon error among weak Christians and seekers' 
of religion is the one brought out by Paul in the tenth 
chapter of Romans : ^'Brethren, my heart's desire and 
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. 
For they being ignorant of God's rig'hteousness, and go- 
ing about to establish their own righteousness, have not 
submitted Uhemselves unto the righteousness of God." 

This self-righteousness was an error that Paul had 
to combat in his day^ and it is an error that we have 
to combat in our day. To-day, as nineteen hundred 
years ago, men are going about to establish their own 
righteousness, instead of submitting to God's righteous 
method of saving them by faith. Weeping will not save 



Trammels of Faith. 109 

you ; praying will not save you ; struggling will not save 
you ; agonizing will not save you ; munificent donations 
will not save you; consecration, though it may be per- 
fect and entire, will not save you. These may all be 
steps leading to salvation, but neither, nor all combined, 
can any more save a soul than they can make a world. 
Faith alone in Christ can save. Then, 

"Let us trust God's bleeding Son, 
Trust the work that He has done; 
To His arms, Lord, help us run — 
Faith in Christ will save you." 

For a long time John Wesley sought salvation by 
his own good works. He came all the way from Eng- 
land to America to preach the gospel to the Indians 
and white people that were here, in the hope that he 
might, by his own good works, merit salvation. 

But John Wesley never found salvation until those 
simple Moravians taught him the simplicity of faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ. And following their directions, 
and believing in Christ alone, the Holy Ghost bore 
witness with his spirit that he was a child of God. Then 
he went everywhere preaching the doctrine of justifica- 
tion by faith. 

William Taylor, our late African bishop, made the 
same mistake that Mr. Wesley made. He tried tO' ob- 
tain pardon and holiness by his own good works, but 
he never found either until he learned to take them 
by faith. He says : "I tried a hundred times to be holy, 
and failed every time. I have tried and tried, until 
my heart is sick." He finally reached the conclusion 
that he never would be holy unless God made him 
holy. A wise conclusion tO' reach. And it is the con- 



no The Shining Way. 

elusion that every one must reach. God alone can make 
us holy. "I was/' says he, ''stripped from all hope 
from anything I had done, or could do. Not a peg in 
all the future of my life, no more than the past, on which 
to hang a hope or furnish ground for postponement. 
Then the crucifixion of the flesh, with its fallacious 
plans and hopes of reformation, was fully accomplished 
in me. My conscience was purged from dead works, 
and I was let down in the vale of self-abasement and 
self-despair, and down into the vale of self-conscious 
impotency my feet rested firmly on 'the Rock of Ages, 
cleft for me,' and 'Jesus was made of God unto mie, 
wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and re- 
demption,' and then I learned that it is in holiness as 
pardon, 'not by works of righteousness which we have 
done, but by faith in Christ alone.' " 

Every wholly sanctified soul has learned the lesson 
that Bishop Taylor learned, and having learned this 
lesson, it is easy for him to believe. Without a struggle 
he asks, believes, and receives. 

3. Another reason why many are slow to believe, 
is because they are seeking salvation by the develop- 
ment theory. You can't develop into pardon. Religion 
is not obtained by growth. Pardon is by faith, and 
hence is instantaneous. After pardon, then yO'U can 
grow. You can't develop into sanctification. Luke 
says we are "sanctifi-ed by faith." Sanctification being 
by faith, like pardon, it is instantaneous. After this 
wonderful work is wrought in the heart by the power 
of the Holy Ghost, then you can grow — grow more 
rapidly than ever before. Get this great blessing, this 
unspeakable gift, the power of Christ's cleansing blood, 
and you will receive an impetus that will send you on 



k 



Trammels of Faith. hi 

your heavenly way with a speed you never dreamed 
of before. The sanctified soul learns the art of believ- 
ing. He believes, receives, and proclaims to the world 
his prize. 

4. Another reason why many are slow to believe, 
is because they predicate their faith on their feeling. 
When they have strong and joyous emotion, then they 
have strong faith. When their feelings ebb, their faith 
sinks in the same ratio. Their whole religious lives 
are made up of impulsive struggles. Sometimes they 
are in the light, and sometimes in the darkness ; somie- 
times they are on the mountain- top, and sometimes 
in the valley low. And many of these are among the 
most sincere people we have, and they are among the 
very best. 

Well, such a religious life is infinitely better than 
no religion at all, and yet there is a more excellent way. 
Our feelings are liable to a thousand changes from 
causes within and without, over which we have no con- 
trol whatever. But our loyalty to God need never 
change, and our faith in God need never waver. 

All the feeling I want, all the feeling I need, is the 
consciousness that I am now loyal to God, and that 
I am now perfectly submissive to the Divine will. My 
work is to remain every mo>ment loyal to God, and 
every moment perfectly submissive to the Divine will, 
and it is God's work to give me feeling or no feeling, 
just as He sees it is best for me to have. 

Maintaining the fact of my perfect loyalty tO' God, 
and my perfect submission to the Divine will, all I 
have to do is to perfectly trust Christ as my present 
and complete Savior. Right here God speaks to us 
very clearly from His Word : "Who is among you that 



112 The Shining Way. 

feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, 
that walketh in darkness, and hath no hght? Let him 
trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." 
(Isa. 1, 10.) 

Are you trusting In the Lord, and obeying His 
voice, and is it all dark? What are you to do? Why, 
God tells you. Just trust in the Lord and stay upon 
your God^ and God in His own time will give you 
all the light and all the joy that it is necessary for you 
to have. 

A man once said to Bishop Taylor, "It is hard to 
trust God under these dark providences in which we 
can not see the hand oi the Almighty." The good 
bishop replied, "If you can't trust a man out of your 
sight, that is evidence you have no faith in him at all." 

If we can not trust God in the dark as well as in 
the light ; in adversity as well as prosperity ; in sickness 
as well as in health, that is evidence we have no faith in 
Him at all. 

God often tests our faith. It is a good thing to have 
our faith tested. You remember God tested Abraham's 
faith. God appeared to Abraham, and said, "I am 
thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." And Abra- 
ham said, "What will you give me? I am an old man, 
and I have no children." One of the greatest honors 
and greatest blessings that could possibly come to man 
in that age was to have a large family of children. It 
is just ais great an honor now in the sight of Almighty 
God as it was then, but many do not consider it so. 
"What will you give me? I am an old man, and I have 
no children." God led him out one beautiful, bright, 
starlight night, and showed him the stars of heaven, 
and said unto him, "Tell the stars if thou be able to 



Trammels of Faith. 113 

number them/' But that was a task too great for 
Abraham. He could not possibly number them. And 
God said to him, *'Thou shalt inherit the land of Canaan, 
and thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven for multi- 
tude." Abraham was a hundred years old and his 
wife ninety when that wonderful promise was made. 
Abraham knew very well if that marvelous promise 
were fulfilled, God must perform a miracle. When that 
promise was repeated to Abraham by the angels, Sarah 
overheard it, and **she laughed to herself." It seemed 
to her ridiculous, perfectly preposterous, and she could 
but laugh when she heard it. 

I never have blamed Abraham for asking God to 
give him a token that that pro>mise would be fulfilled. 
''How shall I know that I shall inherit the land of 
Canaan, and how shall I know that my posterity shall 
be as the stars of heaven for multitude? Give me a 
sign." And God said : ''I will. Take a heifer three 
years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram 
three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon, 
and offer them as a sacrifice to me, and I will send fire 
from heaven and consume them." And Abraham 
obeyed the voice of God. He had the heifer slain 
and dressed, and the ram slain and dressed, and the kid 
slain and dressed, and the turtle-dove, and the pigeon. 
Then be built up the altar and had the sacrifice all placed 
thereon. And when all was completed, he looked up 
to heaven, expecting the fire to come down and con- 
sume the sacrifice. But the fire did not come down. 
What did Abraham do? He did not tear down the 
altar and throw away the sacrifice. No ; but he stood 
by the altar, faithfully guarding the ofifering. It was 
aibout twelve o'clock when the altar was completed 
8 



114 The Shining Way. 

and the sacrifice placed thereon. One o'clock caeie, 
and no fire descended. Two o'clock came, and still 
no fire came. Then, methinks, Abraham walked all 
around the altar to see if some of the pieces had not 
fallen off. But he found all secure, and the sacrifice 
still complete. Three o'clock came, and the scent from 
the slain animals attracted the fowls of heaven. And 
when the fowls came down, Abraham drove them away. 
The vultures and the eagles came flying around to get 
hold of the sacrifice, but Abraham with his club kept 
them all off. Hour after hour he faithfully stood guard 
over the sacrifice. As the sun was going down, "an 
horror of great darkness fell upon him." I wonder 
if the reader has ever felt this ''horror of great dark- 
ness." I do not believe that any one has ever got very 
near God without having felt a horror of great darkness. 
I remember when I was seeking religion, some fifty 
years ago, and it seemed that I \V3}S sinking into the 
bottO'mless pit and was lost forever, a horror of great 
darkness was upon me. I remember, too, twenty years 
afterwards, when seeking holiness at the Bennet Camp- 
meeting, for three long days and nig>hts a horror of great 
darkness was upon me. Then at different times since 
I have felt this horror of great darkness — a darkness 
so dense that it seemed I could cut it with a knife in 
great chunks. Always the dense darkness has been 
just before the light, the joy, the peace, and the glory. 
Finally the sun went down behind the western hori- 
zon, the darkness of the night came on, and Abraham 
looked up and he saw a smoking furnace, and in the 
smoking furnace a burning lamp. Down came the 
smoking furnace, and the burning lamp passed between 
the pieces on the altar, and the whole sacrifice was 



Trammels of Faith. 115 

consumed, and Abraham had the evidence that the 
promise made by God would be fulfilled. Have you 
got all upon the altar? Is your consecration full, per- 
fect, and complete ? And still is there no light, no peace, 
no joy? What are you to do? Watch your sacrifice. 
See to it that your consecration is kept perfect. Do n't 
let the vultures from the bottomless pit steal away your 
offering. Guard faithfully your consecration. Hold on 
to God by naked faith, and God in His own good 
time will send the heavenly fire and co'usume the sacri- 
fice, and the light, the peace, the unspeakable joy of 
a blood-washed soul will flood your whole being. 

We said in the beginning of this chapter that faith 
was a reasonable thing, and that unbelief was an un- 
reasonable thing. 

Faith is credit given to testimony. When there is 
an overwhelming array of testimony, what right have 
we to discard that testimony, throw it aside, and say, 
I will not believe it? 

But the most unreasonable thing in the wodd is 
for Christians to doubt. 

I know that many look upon unbelief as an infirmity, 
a weakness, an innocent, harmless thing. But that 
is a great mistake. They would not dare get up in a 
social meeting and confess that they were guilty of dis- 
honesty or falsehood or theft; and yet they do not 
hesitate to confess their unbelief, when unbelief is the 
great sin, the enormous sin, the sin of all sins, the sin 
that is peopling hell by millions every year. 

I speak for myself. For me to doubt any of the 
Divine promises would not be an infirmity, nor a weak- 
ness, but a crime. Let me tell you why it would be a 
crime. 



ii6 The Shining Way. 

Nearly fifty years ago I asked God, in the name 
and for the sake of His only begotten Son, to pardon 
my sins, and to give me the evidence that the work 
was done. God heard that prayer, answered that prayer, 
and sent into my heart the witnessing Spirit that the 
work was accomplished. The evidence of my conversion 
was as clear as the noonday sun. 

Some thirty years ago, I went down in the straw 
at the Bennet Camp-meeting and asked God, in the 
name and for the sake of His only begotten Son, to 
sanctify my soul. God heard and answered that prayer,- 
and the Holy Ghost bore witness with my spirit to 
the great fact of my sanctification just as clearly as He 
had done to my conversion. Then God has answered 
my prayers a great many times in behalf of the con- 
version of others. I will give one illustration. I might 
give many_, but oine will suffice. In 1892, I was sta- 
tioned in Beatrice. One day I received a letter from 
my sister-in-law, saying, "Walter, your brother, is very 
sick." A few days later I received another letter, say- 
ing: "Walter is worse. He wants to see you. Come 
at once." I took the first train, and reached his bed- 
side just as soon as I could. The moment I looked 
into his face, I was impressed that he was a very sick 
man, and that he never would recover. He was going 
down to an untimely grave, under the influence of a 
legalized traffic — a traffic legalized by the Christian 
voters of America — that is sending one hundred thou- 
sand souls to drunkard's graves every year. I sat down 
by his bedside, and he said to me, "I am going to die, 
and I want you to preach my funeral." 

I said to him : "What about the future ? Are you 
ready to die?" 



Trammels of Faith. 117 

"O no," said he. ''I have put this matter off too 
long. No use for me to try now.'' 

I told him of Christ's infinite love, and of His will- 
ingness and ability to save to the uttermost all that 
would come unto Him. I talked with him until he 
became very weak, and I saw I must let him rest awhile. 
After he had rested, I began again to talk to him about 
the salvation of his soul, when he said to me : "Henry, 
it is no use. I can't get hold of God. I have tried and 
tried, but I can't get hold of God." And the deep agony 
of despair was on every lineament of his face. O, it is 
an awful thing to be where you can't get hold of God ! 
The absence of God is hell. 

I talked with him until he could not talk any longer. 
He was very weak, and fell into a gentle sleep. I went 
and took down the Bible. There was no one in the 
room but myself and my dying brother. My heart was 
bleeding at every pore. I felt as any one almost would 
feel under such circumstances. My brother was dying 
without God, and without a ray of hope. With the 
Bible on my lap, I offered this prayer, "O God, give 
me a proimise from Thy Word that you will save my 
brother." 

I thought of Gideon and the fleece. When the 
Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the 
East came down upon the Israelites, Gideon went to 
God in prayer, and he said to the Almig*hty: "If Thou 
wilt save Israel by my hand, as Thou hast said. Behold, 
I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew 
be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth 
beside, then shall I know that Thou wilt save Israel 
by mine hand, as Tho'U hast said." (Judges vi, 37.) 

And he put out the fleece, and in the morning the 



ii8 The Shining Way. 

ground all around the fleece was dry, and the fleece 
was wet with the dew, and he wrung from it a bowl 
full of water. And Gideon had the evidence that God 
would save Israel by his hand. I thought of this, and 
I offered this prayer, '*0 God, you heard Gideon's 
prayer, and you gave him a token that you would save 
Israel by his hand; now give me a token from Thy 
Word that you will save my brother." I opened the Bible 
at the twenty-seventh chapter of Acts, and began to 
read. I read several verses, and then I said to myself: 
"O, this is a dry chapter. There is no promise here 
for me." But I continued to read, and after reading 
several verses more, again I said to myself: "There is 
nothing in this chapter for me. No promise for me 
here." But somehow I was constrained to read on, 
and near the close of the chapter I read of Paul's ship- 
wreck, and in the very last verse of the chapter I came 
to these words : ''Some on boards and some on broken 
pieces of the ship. And so it cam€ to pass that they 
escaped all safe to land." I have no language to describe 
my feelings when I read this verse. The words went 
through me like an electric shock. I was never so 
thrifled in all my life. ''Why," I said to myself, "these 
poor shipwrecked mariners were in the most imminent 
peril, but they escaped, every one of them, safe tO' 
land. They were afl saved — barely saved — but they 
were saved." 

"Some on boards and some on broken pieces of the 
ship. And so it cam^e to pass that they escaped all safe 
to land." I s'aid to myself : "My brother will be saved — 
barely saved — 'but he will be saved. He will get to 
heaven ; it may be on a broken plank, but he will get 
there." I gripped the promise, my heart thrilling with 



Trammels of Faith. 119 

unearthly rapture. I turned and looked into the face 
of my brother. I saw he was sinking, and could not 
last but a little while. Despair was on every lineament 
of his face. 

I went up to the telegraph-office to send a message 
to my brother in Lincoln, and all the way up to the 
office I kept saying to myself, in exultations of joy, 
''He will be saved; he will be saved." And all the way 
back from the office I kept repeating the same words. 
On entering the rooim, I looked into his face, and I 
saw in an instant that the change 'had come. His face 
was beaming with unearthly light, and the very first 
words he said to me were : ''Henry, I have got hold 
of God ; I have got hold of God ! I am going to heaven ; 
I am going to heaven sure!" In a little while after- 
wards, I saw him go down, trusting and rejoicing and 
triumphing in the world's mighty Redeemer. Glory 
be unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the 
Holy Ghost, for ever and ever I 

Now, with all these wonderful and positive answers 
to prayer, for me to doubt a single promise made by 
the Almighty in His Word would not be simply an 
infirmity or a weakness, but it would be a sin, a crime. 
Ah yes ; it would be the crime of all crimes ! 

Reader, if heretofore you have been slow to believe, 
be slow to believe no longer. Ask, believe, and receive. 

The measure of a Church's faith is the measure of 
a Church's power. So much faith, sO' mueh power. 
So much faith, so much influence with God and man. 
So much faith, so much salvation. No more, no less. 
Faith connects the Church with Omnipotent Power, and 
nothing can stand before Omnipotent Power. 

*'If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall 



I20 The Shining Way. 

say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; 
and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible 
unto you.*' (Matt, xv'n, 20.) 

"If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might 
say unto this sycamine-tree, Be thou plucked up by the 
root, and be thou planted in the sea ; and it should 
obey thee." (Luke xvii, 6.) 

Have faith in God, and mountainous difficulties will 
become mole-hills. Have faith in God, and sycamine- 
trees of obstruction will come up by the roots, topple 
over into the sea, and disappear. Have faith in God, 
and the windows of heaven will open, and salvation in 
torrents will flow. Have faith in God, and converts 
will be seen flocking into the Churches as doves to their 
windows. The possibilities of faith are wonderful. God 
help all the Churches to measure up to these wonderful 
possibiHties ! 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THOSE ON THE SHINING WAY, AND THE HIGHER 

CRITICISM. 

WE have never known one on the Shining Way 
of hoHness who has had any sympathy whatever 
with the Higher Criticism. Those in the enjoyment of 
full salvation have had too many of the precious prom- 
ises of the Bible fulfilled in their own personal expe- 
rience, and too many positive and direct answers to their 
own prayers, to doubt for a single momenlt any part 
of the Bible. 

Just in the same ratio that men get near God, and 
become more and more like Hrm, does their faith in 
the plenary inspiration of the Bible increase. They 
believe the Bible, the whole Bible, the Bible from lid 
to lid. They believe that Moses wrote the Pentateuch; 
that the sun stood still at the command of Joshua; that 
Job was a real person, as the prophet Ezekiel declares. 
They believe that Isaiah wrote the prophecies ascribed 
to him, and they believe the story of Jonah. Yes, they 
believe the whole Bible — ^every book, every chapter, 
every verse. 

One O'f the alarming symptoms of the age is the 
tendency manifested in many quarters to discredit por- 
tions of the Bible. 

He who creates a doubt in the mind of a young 
man as to the inspiration of a single verse in the Bible 
has done that young man an irreparable harm. That 
doubt raised in the mind of that young man touching 

121 



122 The Shining Way. 

the inspiration of any part of the Bible may be the 
jostle that will topple him over on the inclined plane, 
and start him on his downward career, which will end 
in the blackness of eternal night. 

O God, save professing Christians from starting 
doubts in the minds of the young touching the truth of 
Thy Word! 

In 1899, ^^' Benjamin F. DeCosta, former rector 
of the Church of the Evangelist in New York, withdrew 
from the ministry and membership of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church. 

It is said that this action was hastened by the tri- 
umph of the Broad Church party in the New York 
Diocesan Convention. The Broad Church party led by 
Bishop Potter, indorse the views of Dr. Briggs, who is 
a higher critic. 

Dr. Co'Sta, in his letter of resignation to the bishop, 
says : "You, right reverend sir, have entered the field 
at a crucial hour, plainly declaring that the system of 
denial or negation embodied in the Higher Criticism 
forms an allowable method of interpretation, and that 
the acceptance of the methods and its conclusions does 
not disqualify candidates for the ministry. You have 
therefore deliberately received into the denomination, 
and you have approved as proper teachers for the 
people, men who declare that the Scriptures are errant 
and do not form an Infallible guide, abounding in 
myths, fables, scientific and historical errors. Men 
of this kind plainly declare that what hitherto we have 
called the Bible is not the Bible. For myself, I can 
not bow to the guidance of the distinguished critics 
whom you have set forth as teachers and examples for 
the Faculties In Episcopal seminaries, masters In Israel — 



Higher Criticism. 123 

who now, side by side with the professional infidel, 
stand forth to lecture on the 'Mistakes of Moses/ '' 

These higher critics are admitted, not only into the' 
seminaries and pulpits of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, but they are admitted into the pulpits and 
schools of other Churches as well. And, sad to say, 
some of these higher critics are in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. 

There are many young men in the ministry and 
laity that bow with profound reverence before the 
learned, and whatever is said in the name of scholar- 
ship is accepted by them as infallible. But it should 
be remembered that scholarship, unless it be devout 
scholarship, may be as dangerous as it is presumptive. 
No man is capable of entering into the critical study 
of the Scriptures unless he is thoroughly devout. 
Paul was one of the finest scholars of his day. There 
were many others who were his peers in knowledge and 
wisdom, but they were not capable' of understanding 
the gospel of Jesus Christ because they were not 
devout. 

Paul declares that "The natural man receiveth not 
the things of the' Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness 
unto him; neither can he know them, because they are 
spiritually discerned." (i Cor. ii, 14.) 

The learned tell us that the phrase, ''natural man,'' 
means in the original, "intellectual man." So Paul 
declares that the "intellectual man" Is not capable of 
judging spiritual things. We do not object to the most 
rigid and critical study of the Scriptures. Christians 
have always courted the most thorough investigation 
of the Bible, and have' never had any fear that its 
Divine teachings could ever be overthrown. The evi- 



124 The Shining Way. 

dence of the inspiration of the whole Bible is over- 
whelming. What we object to among the higher critics 
is the "destructive criticism." 

There is a certain class who arrogate to themselves 
the wisdom of all the world. This liberal, rationalistic, 
presumptive school of critics of the present day stand 
side by side with the destructive critics of the past. 

If the Bible were destroyed, the happiness of the 
world would be' destroyed. All that is done, therefore, 
to weaken faith in any part of the Bible is done at the 
expense of human happiness. No professor in a Chris- 
tian college or minister in a Christian pulpit has any 
right to air his doubts touching any part of God's 
Word. The man who does so strikes at the very foun- 
dation of man's happiness, and imperils immortal souls. 

Many of the ripest scholars of the present age discard 
the Higher Criticism, and look upon it as dangerous 
and unsound. Take, for example. Bishop Warren and 
a great multitude of others we might mention — men 
who have no superiors in scholarship. 

Bishop Warren says: "In matters of literary crit- 
icism there is room for colossal mistakes. Shakespeare 
is not very old, but one man has proved to his satis- 
faction and many others that Lord Bacon wrote his 
plays. And another man by the same rules has proved 
that Shakespeare wrote Lord Bacon's works. It is 
a sword of two edges. Napoleon is not yet out of 
the memory of living men, but some of the rules ap- 
plied to demolish Scripture verity have been applied to 
cast most serious doubts on his existence." 

"Criticism claims to have taken out of our historic 
realities William Tell and Regulus. It has also tried 
to take away our Lord. But His living presence in 
millions of hearts dissipates such a conclusion. A feW 



Higher Criticism. 125 

years ago I was awed in the presence of one of the 
greatest achievements of man — the great stone wall of 
China. During the same' summer, a Frenchman proved 
to his satisfaction by literary lucubrations (working by 
lamplight) that no such great wall ever existed. I saw 
it in the day, and still believe in the stone wall and in 
the Rock of Ages also." 

*'It is believed to be thoroughly established that the 
prophecies of Isaiah were written during his life and 
by the author whose name they bear. In favor of 
this stands the living tradition of a living body of truth- 
loving men, reaching through all the thousands of 
years that lie between us and the patriarchs. In its 
favor speaks the attested preservation of early chapters 
of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, through all revo- 
lutions of the Egyptian kingdoms, through many mil- 
lenniums of time. In favor of this come, ever and 
anon, new voices from the mounds of perished cities 
and from the tombs of men who lived and wrote before 
the days of Moses. In favor of this stands every natural 
implication of the words of Him who spake as never 
man spake." 

"Isaiah, being dead, yet speaketh to our day. 'Say 
to them of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not ; behold, 
your God will come and save you.' " 

''Isaiah died with the clarion at his lips. Nothing 
is more jubilant than his last words. Tradition says 
that, as the critics are trying to do now with his works, 
he was sawn asunder. Ever the blind world stones its 
saints and crucifies its Christs." 

Dr. Shank, editor of the Omaha Advocate, wisely said 
in an editorial a short time ago : 

"We oppose the destructive criticism because we 
are not ready to give up our Methodist theology, nor 



126 The Shining Way. 

our Methodist Hymnal, nor our Methodist Catechism, 
nor the doctrine of conversion and witness of the 
Spirit. In short, we are not ready to become a Uni- 
tarian nor a UniversaHst. Let our ministry and laity 
stick to the old paths. They are the only safe ones to 
travel. Sinners can be saved only by Him who became 
a sacrifice for sin. 'Behold the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the' sin of the world.' " 

Some twenty-five years ago, Dr. John ]\Iuir was one 
of the leading and most conspicuous of the higher 
critics of Great Britain. And manv of the most radical 
higher critics of the present day are indebted to him 
for their theological views. It is said that it was at Dr. 
Muir's request that Dr. Kuenen, the great German 
higher critic, wrote his famous work on ''Prophets and 
Prophecy in Israel." Dr. ]\Iuir had this book translated 
into English, and, adding an introduction of forty pages, 
he had it published at his own expense. This occurred 
in 1877. Four years later, he wrote to his publishers 
to suspend the sale of the w^ork, giving as his reason 
that views were expressed in his introduction which 
he could not then adhere to. Xot long after. Dr. Muir 
died, and the circulation of the book still remains sus- 
pended. It may be, and it is earnestly to be prayed 
for, that many of the higher critics of to-day may see 
their error and follow the example of Dr. Muir. 

It is a serious thing to attempt to shake confidence' 
in the Scriptures ; and Dr. ]vluir, realizing that death 
was not far distant, began to see that hastily-formed 
opinions on so important a matter were not proper 
for circulation,, hence the suspension of the sale of 
the book. 

In 1899, Dr. ^lunhall delivered an address before 



Higher Criticism. 127 

the New York Preachers' Meeting on "The Inspired 
Authority of the Bible." That address contains the 
following : 

''Nearly every objection raised against the integrity 
of the Bible by the 'higher critics' (he said) could be 
found in Voltaire's works and Paine's 'Age of Reason/ 
The enemy (he continued) used to be outside the breast- 
works. He' is now inside — in our pulpits, in our edu- 
cational institutions, and our editorial chairs. But it is 
the same battle, and the weapons used against the Book 
are the very same the infidels have always used. When 
IngersoU was asked by a friend why he no longer gave 
his lecture against the Bible, he replied, 'The professors 
and preachers are doing that work much better than I 
possibly can, and their influence is much greater than 
mine.' I do know that in two of our theological schools 
the Old Testament professors are giving their students 
all the objections against the integrity of the record, 
and making no attempt whatever to answer these objec- 
tions. And these students are going out to fill pulpits, 
with little or no knowledge of the Bible, their minds 
filled with objections to the Book which the Church 
commissions them to preach. Can any one reasonably 
expect spiritual results from the ministry of such men? 
I know of one of these young men who, within four 
years of his ordination, left the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, became pastor of a Congregational Church, 
then pastor of a Unitarian Church, and then a blatant 
infidel, all in the same town. A wealthy member of our 
Church, a delegate to the last General Conference, told 
me: 'I sent my oldest son to a Methodist educational 
institution not five hundred miles from New York City. 
Before he left home he was considered by all who knew 



128 The Shining Way. 

him to be a model Christian young man. He would 
conduct family worship, lead the Church prayer-meet- 
ing, was a teacher in the Sunday-school, and would 
speak and exhort in the meetings of the Church. 
While at school, he came under the influence of a 
certain professor, who is a higher critic. He came home 
an infidel, and has not been inside a church since.' '* 

A few years ago a brilliant young lawyer in the 
State of Nebraska, with a fine practice and a bright fu- 
ture before him as a lawyer, felt called to preach. He' 
sold his law-books, w^ent to Evanston, intending to enter 
the theological seminary, and prepare himself for the 
ministry. He' reached Evanston Saturday night. On 
Sunday he heard one of the professors and acting presi- 
dent deliver a lecture to the students. During his lec- 
ture, the' professor called in question the inspiration 
of some parts of the prophecy of Isaiah. After the lecture 
was over, the young man said : "That 's enough. I 
have always had doubts touching the inspiration of the 
Bible. This man has spent his life studying up this 
question. He' has had advantages on this line that I 
never have had, and tells us that some parts of the 
Bible are not inspired; and if some parts are not in- 
spired, who knows that any of the Bible is inspired?" 

On Monday morning he left the city without saying 
a word to any of the professors. He went into Chi- 
cago, entered again the practice of the law, and is to- 
day an unsaved man, drifting farther and farther out 
on the broad sea of doubt and uncertainty. I am per- 
sonally acquainted with this man, and know him as 
intimately as any man in Nebraska. 

How will that professor feel when he meets the re- 



Higher Criticism. 129 

suits of his infidel teachings before the flaming bar of 
God in the great judgment-day? Such teachings in our 
schools, universities, and pulpits are sending our young 
men to hell Instead of saving and leading them to 
heaven. 

Rev. Joseph Parker, one of the ablest and most 
scholarly ministers of London, in an address to a 
young preacher who was about to be installed as pastor 
of one of the Churches of that city, said, among other 
things : **Do n't make a fool of yourself by trying to 
make a new Bible. You will find it won't pay. Keep 
to the center of the road on the turnpike over which 
countless millions have passed to heaven." That is 
good advice, not only to a young minister, but to an 
old minister as well. A man makes a fool of himself 
whenever he tries to make a new Bible or patch up 
the old one. Let him that would call in question the in- 
spiration of any part of the Bible, that would alter or 
change, add to or take from, anything that i^ written in 
the Old or New Testament Scriptures, ponder the words 
of the Revelator: ''If any man shall add unto these 
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are 
written in this book. And If any man shall take away 
from the words of the book of this prophecy, God 
shall take away his part out of the book of life and 
out of the holy city, and from the things which are 
written In this book." (Rev. xxii> 18, 19.) 

The one InfaHible remedy for the rationalistic 
trend of the Churches of the present day is holiness. 
Ministers and members have to an alarming extent 
gone back on the Bible doctrine of holiness. When a 
man goes back on the doctrine of holiness, there Is 
9 



130 The Shining Way. 

no telling where he will come up. Then he goes back 
on revivals, becomes a nominal Christian, having the 
form, without the power of godliness. 

When a man gets the blessing of entire sanctifica- 
tion, God gives him an illuminated edition of the 
Bible. He sees the Spirit of God in ever}^ book and 
chapter and verse as he never saw it befd-e. He' sees, 
too, that every suggestion that this, that, or the other 
part of the Bible is not inspired, is the insinuation of 
the arch-deceiver of the race, and is not of God. 

If we would be saved from the sophistries of the 
devil and the rationalistic tendencies of the age, we 
must obey the voice of the Lord God, who says, 
"Stand ye in the wa3^s and see and ask for the old 
paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and 
ye shall find rest to your souls." (Jer. vi, 16.) 

Get on the good old way of holiness by simple 
faith in the Lord Jesus, and you will have perfect soul- 
rest from all doubts touching the inspiration of any 
part of God's Word. On this highway of holiness 
there is not only perfect soul-rest, but there is perfect 
safety and perfect joy. "An highway shall be there, 
and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. 
. . . No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous 
beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there ; 
but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed 
of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs 
and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall ob- 
tain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee 
away." (Isa. xxxv, 8-10.) 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE SHINING WAY AN EXPERIENCE. 

"TI^ we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have 
1 fellowship, one with another, and the blood of Jesus 
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. . . . "If 
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive 
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
(i John i, 7, 9.) 

"Wherefore He is able also to save them to the 
uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He 
ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Heb. 
vii, 25.) 

"For by one offering He hath perfected forever them 
that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a 
witness to us." (Heb. x, 14, 15.) 

Many all along the ages have had an experience in 
perfect harmony with these precious and positive 
promises. 

So hoHness is not simply a theory, not simply a 
dogma, but it is an experience — a deep, sweet, rich, 
glowing, and abiding experience, that no power in 
earth or hell can shake' or remove. 

Men may preach against the doctrine of holiness 
as a second work subsequent to regeneration ; men may 
write against it, and deride it, and ridicule it, and say all 
manner of evil against it and those who profess it ; they 
may sarcastically sneer at it and its defenders ; but all 
the preaching against it, and all the writings against it, 
and all the obloquy and sarcasm hurled at it, have no 

131 



132 The Shining Way. 

more influence upon the man who has the experience 
than the waves of the sea have upon the towering 
granite rock of Gibraltar. As the waves of old ocean 
break and fall harmless at the base of this mountain 
of rock, so all the preaching, and all the writings, and 
all the ridicule, and all the sarcasm of the opposers of 
the doctrine fall harmless at the feet of the man who 
has the experience. 

Away down in the great deep of the soul there is 
the settled peace, the great calm, the undisturbed re- 
pose that comes to the heart when inbred sin is cast 
out. A great work has been wrought in the heart, an 
enemy has been cast out, an inward foe has been de- 
stroyed, and the peace of God that passeth all under- 
standing has taken up his abode in the soul. 

The inner consciousness that this great work has 
been wrought in the heart makes the sanctified man 
invulnerable to all the attacks of men on earth or de- 
mons in hell. 

"There is a tendency in some quarters to place 
theory above experience. But the latter must ever 
take the second place. One ounce of experience out- 
weighs a ton of argument or theory. The question 
is not whether a multitude of scholars are on one 
side of the subject or not. The question is, Which 
side has experimental knowledge? It is not to be con- 
sidered whether all the Doctors of Divinity in Germany 
deny the experience of the new birth ; but the question 
is, Are there any reliable witnesses to the fact that 'it 
is an experience? It is not a question as to whether 
scholars or religious leaders deny the experience of 
entire sanctification as a second work of grace sub- 
sequent to conversion. The question is, Are there re- 



• 



An Experience. 133 

liable witnesses to it? When it comes to a matter of 
experience, a child may know more than a philosopher. 
A child on a mountain can see farther than a large man 
at the foot of it. Experience is a mountain that gives 
greater vision than thousands of scholarly men down 
in the valley of speculation have. This has been the 
Divine method from the beginning. Jesus said, 'I 
thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, be- 
cause Thou hast hid these things from the wise and 
prudent and hast revealed them unto babes.' That is 
the reason all the sophistry of great men can never 
overthrow the truth. That is the reason God is ever 
saying, 'Taste and see.' One taste of sugar reveals 
more than a book upon the subject. Never be tempted 
to give up your experience because some carnally great 
man does not believe in it. His theory from the stand- 
point of experimental ignorance proves nothing. Some 
one tells the story of a fountain in London which is 
opened by a spring. A man wanted to drink, but no 
one could tell him how to open the fountain until a 
little, dirty bootblack came up and touched the spring, 
and the water gushed forth. The little bootblack knew 
more than all the men about him. Let us get our eyes 
off from people; let us not be like those of old who 
inquired, 'Have any of the rulers believed on Him?' 
but let us go to Jesus and get acquainted with Him 
in all His saving fullness for ourselves. Let us take 
counsel of those who have an experience rather than 
with those who have only a theory. The devil has 
plausible theories, but no experience, and men may have 
great minds and small hearts. In the seeking of holi- 
ness, follow the men of experience rather than the men 
of theory." 



134 The Shining Way. 

There are many in our Churches who deny that 
there is a second vrork of grace subsequent to conver- 
sion ; or if there is such a blessing, it does not take 
place until the hour of death. They say they know 
nothing about such a blessing. But what does that 
prove ? Nothing at all. They have not the experience, 
and hence know nothing at all about the doctrine they 
condemn. They are not proper ^ntnesses in the case. 

"A witness in court is a man who testifies to what 
he knows, not to what he does not know. Suppose 
a boy should declare that he saw one man murder 
another, and a hundred men should swear that it did 
not occur because they did not see it, do we not all 
know that the testimony of the lad would outweigh the 
statements of the one hundred men? He was present, 
saw and knew of the transaction, while they were not 
there, and so could not properly testify. In this in- 
stance, one positive declaration of fact outweighs a 
thousand denials. So, in regard to this experience, we 
have those who say they have the blessing. What, 
then, does the adverse testimony of laymen and preach- 
ers amount to against the doctrine, when all they say, 
when summed up, is that they have not got it? They, 
in a word, were not on the ground. We were, and, 
thank God! saw the 'old man' killed and buried. In 
other words, we believed, received, and are to-day 
filled and blessed ^^^th joy, liberty, and power of the 
second work of grace." 

A man once told a devout old colored woman down 
South that a very smart and eloquent lecturer had 
said in one of his talks that there was no Holy Ghost. 

"Now, Aunt ^laria," said the man, **when such an 
intellectual and prominent man says there is no Holy 



An Experience. 135 

Ghost in the world, what are you going to do about 
it ?" The devout old colored woman lifted her head, and 
raising her trembling hand, said in tones of earnestness, 
"He means to say there 's no Holy Ghost as he 
knows on!" 

That answer was a Waterloo one, and cleared the 
field. And so in like manner when we hear of people 
denying the fact of a second work of grace, we say, 
*'Yes, there is none that they 'know on.' " 

Our scholastic attainments may be very high. They 
ought to be. We ought to be scholars of the highest 
type. I do not disparage scholarship. But we may 
have a perfect knowledge of the schools ; we may be 
well versed in systematic theology ; we may understand 
theoretically all our standard authors, and yet know 
but little touching entire sanctification. 

What does the sinner know about conversion? 
Nothing at all. The only possible way for him to under- 
stand it is to get the experience. To a celebrated 
scientist. Bishop Haven once said, "Well, Professor, 
we are about even; I know as little about science as 
you do about religion." The witty words of the good 
bishop are perfectly philosophical. Religion is not in 
the intellectual realm, but in the spiritual. Science is 
in one realm, religion is in another. The spiritual 
realm is away above and beyond the intellectual, and 
the way into this realm is not by the head, but by the 
heart; as Paul tells us, "The natural man receiveth not 
the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness 
unto him ; neither can he know them, because' they are 
spiritually discerned." (i Cor. ii, 14.) Entire sanctifi- 
cation is in this spiritual realm, but farther on and 
higher up ; and if we would understand it fully, the 



136 The Shining Way. 

Holy Ghost must teach us. Spiritual things, from the 
lowest level up to the highest plane, are discerned 
spiritually. 

When our repentance and faith are genuine, then 
the Holy Ghost bears witness with our spirit that we 
are the children of God. 

When, as believers, our consecration and faith are 
genuine, then the Holy Spirit bears witness with our 
spirit that the work of entire sanctification is done 
in us. 

The lesson of pardon is taught by the Holy Ghost. 
The lesson of entire sanctification is also taught by the 
Holy Ghost. ''For by one offering He hath perfected 
forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy 
Ghost also is a witness to us." (Heb. x, 14, 15.) 

If, therefore, we would know all about the Canaan 
of perfect love, we must, like' Joshua, go over our- 
selves, and from personal experience become ac- 
quainted with this delightful land. In no other way 
can we possibly know and understand the great and 
all-important doctrine of holiness. And God has prom- 
ised to make this way so plain and clear and easily 
understood that the wayfaring man, though a fool, 
need not err therein. 

This clear understanding and indubitable knowledge 
of the King's highway of holiness every member of 
Christ's militant Church may have. "O taste and see 
that the Lord is good!'* 



CHAPTER XV. 
THE SHINING WAY A LIFE. 

HOLINESS is not only an experience, but it is a 
life — ^a life to be lived ; a life that will impress 
itself upon the world by look^ word, and act. 

There are many who profess holiness, but do not 
live it, as there are many who profess to be justified 
but do not live it. It is a sad fact that there are many 
inconsistent professors of holiness. The doctrine has 
been abused and brought into disrepute by its friends. 
It is just as sad a fact that there are many inconsistent 
professors of regeneration, and religion in general has 
been brought into disrepute by their inconsistencies. 
If we discard the doctrine of holiness because of the 
inconsistencies of some who profess it, for the same 
reason we must discard the doctrine of justification, 
and hence' discard all rehgion, and take our stand on 
the broad platform of infidelity. 

We must take things just as they are and look at 
them just as they exist. We must admit that there are 
many spurious professors of holiness as there are 
many spurious professors of pardon. No reasonable 
man will condemn and utterly discard the doctrine of 
justification by faith because there are some who pro- 
fess to be justified that are known to be base hypo- 
crites. And no reasonable' man will condemn and 
utterly discard the doctrine of holiness because some 
who profess it are known to be as vile as the vilest. 

Our acts, however, have a powerful influence in 
the world; and if we would prove to all beyond a per- 

137 



138 The Shinixg Way. 

adventure the truth and power of this great doctrine, 

we must live if. It must be seen in our looks, words, 
and acts. 'Mr. Punshon, the' great EngHsh divine, in 
giving his estimate of Rev. AHred Cookman, says: '"If 
I would write down my impression of x\lfred Cook- 
man's character, I find myself at a loss; for I can 
scarcely convey my estimate of him in sober words. I 
have been privileged to meet with many gifted and 
godly men in difterent lands and in various branches 
of the Catholic Church. I speak advisedly w^hen I 
say that I never met with one who so well realized my 
idea of complete devotedness. 

''When some pagan questioners asked a Christian 
of old about the religion of Jesus, and were disposed 
to ascribe its spread to its loftier thought and pure 
truth, the Christian made for answer, 'We do not speak 
greater things, but we live.' This life, wherever it is 
embodied, is the highest power. And it was felt to be 
so in the wide sphere in Avliich Alfred Cookman was 
permitted to testify for the ^Master whom he loved. 
There are men of sterling worth who manage to hide 
their excellencies from their fellows, living amongst 
men, unappreciated, because they have no witness, 
like some bird of rare plumage, of whose beauty the 
world knew not until they caught the luster which 
flashed from its parting wing. He was not one of these. 
His life was a perpetual testimony that God can come 
down to man, and that man can be lifted up to God. 
It was impossible to doubt that, 'swift-like, he lived 
in heaven.' There were many who objected to his 
doctrine; there were none within the range of his ac- 
quaintance who failed to be impressed, and few who 
failed to be influenced bv his life." 



A Life. 139 

What is needed more than any one thing is, not 
*'to speak greater things, but to live." What we' want 
in order to speedily capture this world to Christ is **liv- 
ing epistles" of Christ's power to save from all sin, 
''known and read of all men." 

Theodore L. Cuyler has well said, "The sermons 
in shoe's are the sermons to convert an ungodly world." 

The question has been asked, "Are the outward 
acts of one in the enjoyment of entire sanctification 
different from the outward acts of one in the enjo3'^ment 
of regeneration?" To this question we say. No 
and yes. 

First. The outward acts of one professing pardon 
should be just as correct and pure as the outward acts 
of one professing holiness. The lowest plane of relig- 
ion does not admit of the commission of a single sin, 
no matter how small it may be. "Whosoever is born 
of God doth not commit sin." (i John iii, 9.) This 
does not refer to the sanctified man, but to the re- 
generated man, the man standing on the lowest level 
of Christianity. 

The very moment a justified man commits the 
smallest sin, that very moment he forfeits his justifica- 
tion. If he repents and beheves, he may be instantly 
restored to the favor of God. This he m'Ust do or 
remain in an unsaved condition. 

In the sight of God there are no small sins. The 
smallest sin, unrepented of, is of sufficient magnitude 
to doom eternally an immortal soul. So if the reader 
things he can remain a Christian and commit what 
the world would call a very trifling sin, he is laboring 
under a very grave mistake. "Whosoever is born of 
God doth not commit sin." There should be no dif- 



140 The Shining Way. 

ference, therefore, whatever in the outward acts of a 
justified man and the outward acts of a wholly-sancti- 
fied man. While there should be no difference in the 
acts of a justified person and the acts of one wholly 
sanctified so far as the commission of actual sin is 
concerned, there is the following difference : A person 
in the enjoyment of holiness has an intense zeal and 
earnestness for the salvation of souls that the justified 
soul, as a rule, does not have. 

As men get near to God, sin becomes more and 
more repulsive to them. They see the enormity of sin 
as the sinner and the lukewarm Christian do not see it. 
And seeing this and the masses of the people crowd- 
ing their way heedlessly down the broad road to de- 
struction, they are stirred and moved and thrilled as 
the weeping prophet was when he' said, *'0 that my 
head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, 
that I might weep day and night for the slain of the 
daughters of my people!" (Jer. ix, I.) 

Then again, as men get near to God they see more 
and more the great danger men are in all around 
them. And there comes into their hearts an intense, 
burning desire for the salvation of a lost world. 

So the entirely sanctified feel as the prophet 
Isaiah did when he cried out, "For Zion's sake will 
I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will 
not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as 
brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that 
burneth." (Isa. Ixii, i.) 

Some thirty years ago I was pastor of the First 
Methodist Episcopal Church of Lincoln, Nebraska. 
One of the best and most active members of the Church 
was a lady. She was at every means of grace — the 



A Life. 141 

prayer-meeting, the class-meeting, and the pubHc serv- 
ices — unless detained by sickness. If any one took 
sick in the neighborhood, she was the first to visit the 
family. If the parties were' poor, she was there with 
her basket of supplies. The year after I left the station, 
while presiding elder of the district, I said to her one 
day, "Sister Griggs, do n't you want to take the Ad- 
vocate of Holiness f She hesitated a moment, and then 
said, ''Well, yes ; I guess I will take it for one year." 
She afterward said that she subscribed for the paper 
simply because I had asked her to do so, not that 
she wanted it at all. She had no relish for it what- 
ever, and during the entire year only read one or two 
articles. When it came, she generally threw it aside, 
not caring anything for it whatever. One of the articles 
read, I think, was on the Holy Ghost, another was on 
entire sanctification. After her subscription had ex- 
pired, she was taken sick, and lay dangerously ill for 
many weeks. During her sickness she was reminded 
of the articles she had read in the Advocate, and there 
came into her heart an intense' longing for the blessing 
of entire sanctification. She wanted the baptism of 
the Hol}^ Ghost above and beyond every other thing. 
And she began earnestly to pray for Him, and in answer 
to her prayer the Holy Ghost came upon her in all 
His fullness and power. From that time on she was 
a wonder to all who knew her. Her countenance was 
radiant with heavenly light, and her room was a 
Bethel. With that wonderful baptism there came into 
her heart a desire for the salvation of souls such as 
she had never had before, and she' began to work 
and pray for souls as she had never previously done. 
She never entirely recovered her health, but remained 



142 The Shining Way. 

an invalid until God took her hon>e. Not being able 
to go out of the house, she would ask God to send 
persons to her, that she might talk with them upon the 
subject of religion. In answer to prayer they came, 
one after another, and rarely ever did she talk with 
any but what they were converted. Soul after soul 
through her private conversation was brought to 
Christ. Though confined to her room, she was the most 
successful soul-winner in the city. Finally she removed 
with her husband to California. There, as in Nebraska, 
she continued her v/ork of soul-saving. We learned 
from reliable sources that aside from the individuals 
that were converted almost daily, whole families, one 
after another, were brought to Christ by her untiring 
labors. At last she finished her work and, like Elijah, 
went up to glory in a chariot of fi.re. I am sure that 
when the gates of pearl opened to let her in she re- 
ceived an ovation from the shining ranks of the skies. 
She had the power because she had the Holy Ghost, 
and this marvelous power made her a soul-winner. 
This same power we may all have. We may have' it 
now. We may have it simply for the asking. *'It 's 
the very same power they had at Pentecost." If every 
member of the Church had his mighty baptism, then 
every member of the Church would be a flaming herald 
of salvation. 

*'In a California tov/n, two girls of the Presbyterian 
Church were sanctifi.ed in a Methodist mission. The 
instant they got the blessing they began to run over 
and flow forth. Satisfied with formal Church attend- 
ance and some perfunctory Sabbath-school work up to 
that time, now they overflowed the regular banks, and 
backed up to the hills. So they rented a hall, filled 



A Life. 143 

it with chairs, procured an organ, and opened a meet- 
ing. They could not keep still and see men going down 
by scores from their town to hell. Neither of them 
knew how to preach, but they could sing and give their 
experience, and cry some, and pray and exhort a little. 
In a few days a gracious revival broke out, and scores 
of sinners were saved. At once they were summoned 
for trial before their Church, the charges against them 
being 'irregularity.' This was quite true. They were 
very different from what they had been before. A 
mechanical, perfunctory Christian life no longer satis- 
fied them ; they were burning with love for souls, 
and were trying to keep men and women out of per- 
dition. They were doing what their fellow Church 
members were not doing, namely, saving souls ; and 
so they both looked and were exceedingly 'irregular.' 
Fortunately for the girls, the moderator of the Church 
court or assembly was both a religious and sensible 
man. As he propounded numerous questions to the 
young women as to how and when and where and why 
they did these things, light streamed into his mind, and 
he secured their acquittal. His final remarks to the 
assembly were noteworthy. He said, 'Fro-m all I can 
see, these girls have received the' baptism of the Holy 
Ghost, and it would be a good thing if we all had it.' " 
Yes, it would be a good thing, a glorious thing, 
the very best thing that could possibly come to all the 
members of all the Churches, this mighty baptism 
of the Holy Ghost. If they had it, they mnght become 
a little irregular, and would doubtless create a stir in 
the world. There would be a commotion, a rattling 
among the dry bones, and this dark, sin-cursed world 
would soon be brought as a trophy and laid at the 
Redeemer's feet. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
THE SHINING WAY A WAY OF JOY. 

IT is wonderful how much is said in the Bible about 
the joy of God's people. In the days of Ezra, be- 
lievers "shouted aloud for joy." (Ezra iii, 12.) 

Isaiah was commissioned by the Spirit of the Al- 
mighty to give unto God's people "beauty for ashes, 
the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for 
the spirit of heaviness." (Isa. Ixi, 3.) 

The prophet says of 'himself, "I will greatly rejoice 
in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for 
He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation." 
(Ixi, 10.) 

Again says the prophet, "The ransomed of the Lord 
shall return, and come to Zion with songs and ever- 
lasting joy upon their heads ; they shall obtain joy and 
gladness, and sorrow and sig'hing shall flee away." 
(Isa. XXXV, 10.) 

"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; 
but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." 
(Rom. xiv, 17.) 

What a ring of joy there is in the triumphant shout 
of the prophet Habakkuk ! 

"Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither 
shall fruit be in the vines ; the labor of the olive shall 
fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall 
be cut ofif from the fold, and there shall be no herd in 
the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in 
the God of my salvation." (Hab. iii, 17, 18.) 

144 



A Way of Joy. 145 

In this wonderful passage we have the description 
of a Christian of the highest type. One who has gone 
up and out until he has reached the high plane of per- 
fect love. He has reached the point where the great 
tidal waves of full salvation roll in endless succession 
over the enraptured so'ul, deluging it with joy that is 
unspeakable and full of glory. 

So'me object to our having so much to say on the 
subject of holiness. They say this kind of preaching 
creates invidious distinctions in the Church ; that its 
tendency is to make two classes — a lower class and a 
higher class. 

The fact is, we are compelled to admit that there 
are two classes of Christians in the world. They are 
in all the Churches, and always have been. One is a 
sad and gloomy class; the other is a bright, joyful, 
cheerful, happy class. And the reason why we preach 
so much on the subject of perfect love is that we may 
get all Chris>tians into one class — this higher class, this 
bright, cheerful, happy, joyful, conquering class ; this 
class that always goes shouting to the battle. 

We have attended social meetings, and have list- 
ened to the testimonies of professing Christians, and 
from their testimonies you would think t'hey were the 
most unhappy people in the world. The burden of their 
testimony was deep sorrows, great temptations, sore 
conflicts. ''Hard trials, great tribulations," was their 
theme, and having listened to their testimonies, I have 
said, "Well, if that is religion, I do n't want it." Is it 
any wonder that the world should say the same? 

John Bunyan in his glorious dream describes the 
two classes. He speaks of the poor old ''Ready to 
Halt," Mr. "Much- Afraid," with his downcast look, 
10 



146 The Shining Way. 

and Miss ''Despondency," with her long and miserable 
face. We have all seen them. They are in all the 
Churches to-day. They sing, but it is a doleful song: 

"'T is a point I long to know, 

Oft it gives me anxious thought: 
Do I love the Lord or no ? 
Am I His or am I not?" 

They look on the dark side of ever)i:hing. They 
live on the north side of the hill, where the sun never 
shines. 

Now the Lord loves these Christians ; of course He 
does, just as the parent loves the poor, weak, sickly, 
crippled child. 

They are saved, without doubt, through the abound- 
ing grace of Christ, ''who can have compassion on the 
weak and the ignorant and those that are out of the 
w^ay." But they are poor samples of the King's house- 
hold ; miserable examples of the abounding grace of our 
God. Doubtless they will get to heaven, but many of 
them will have starless crowns. 

Then Bunyan speaks of the other class. He describes 
the strong, sturdy, joyful, happy Christian. He tells us 
of the buoyant "Hopeful" and the heroic "Faithful," with 
their cheerful smile, always pressing the battle to the 
gate, and always sure of victory. They are not poor, 
half-starved sheep by any means. They lie down in 
green pastures, and \valk beside the still waters. They 
eat fro-m tables laden with the richest dainties in the 
presence of their enemies. They are anointed with oil, 
and their cup runs over. Goodness and mercy shall fol- 
low them all the days of their lives, and they will dwell 
in the house of the Lord forever. 



A Way of Joy. 147 

The Bible speaks of the two classes. Christ said, **I 
am come that they mig'ht have life, and that they might 
have it more abundantly." (John x, 10.) 

Some have spiritual life, others have ift more abun- 
dantly. 

"These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy 
might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." 
(John XV, II.) 

Some have joy; others have fullness of joy. 

"Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though 
now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy 
unspeakable and full of glory." (i Peter i, 8.) 

Some have a modicum of joy; others have a joy that 
is unspeakable — so great that it can not be described. 

So'me Christians rejoice in prosperity, when every- 
thing goes smoothly, and there are no crosses, no trials, 
no sorrows ; others "rejoice evermore, pray without ceas- 
ing, and in everything give thanks." 

Paul prayed that the members of the Church at 
Ephesus "might be filled with all the fullness of God." 
They were doubtless filled with God, and possibly with 
the fullness of God, but Paul wanted them to go up and 
out beyond this, that they might be filled with all the 
fullness of God. The mind bends under the weight of 
the stupendous thought, "Filled with all the fullness of 
God." Who can comprehend it? Wonderful! grand! 
glorious ! 

Full salvation is joy. It is joy in the Church and joy 
in the family; joy on the Sabbath and joy during the 
week; joy in the parlor and, joy in the kitchen; joy in 
the office and joy in the store ; joy in the field, on the 
public highway, and in the quiet of home. Yes, it is 
joy everywhere and all the time, as well when the clouds 



148 The Shining Way. 

hang heavy, thick, and dark, as when the sun shines 
bright and clear. 

I. The source of this joy is God, the Omnipotent 
Jehovah. If our joy, therefore, is in God, we have noth- 
ing to fear. Its source is unfaiHng. It never will, never 
can fail. 

More than six hundred years before the advent of 
Christ, Habakkuk, under Divine inspiration, saw the 
coming of Nebuchadnezzar with his mighty army upon 
the Jews. He saw the whole country devastated and 
laid waste ; the herds destroyed, the flocks scattered, the 
fruits, the grains, and every vegetable swept away. How 
graphically he paints the dreadful scene ! He saw not 
only the whole country laid waste, but he beheld the 
Jews in chains, slavery and starvation staring them every- 
one in the face. 

Certainly such a scene as that was enough to un- 
nerve the strongest arm, make the stoutest heart quake, 
and the boldest cheek blanch. Could a m'an be happy 
wit'h such a scene before him? Could a man rejoice amid 
such awful surroundings and dire calamities? If he 
could, he must have more than human power imparted 
unto him. But mark the prophet! As he looks upon 
■the desolate scene he is not dismayed, neither melan- 
choly nor sad. His eye brightens, his soul kindles, his 
face lustrous with heavenly lig^ht, and his faith stronger 
than ever, he cries out in exultations of triumph : "Al- 
though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit 
be in the vines ; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the 
fields shall yield no meat ; the flocks shall be cut off from 
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I 
will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my sal- 
vation." The prophet knew so>mething about perfect 



A Way of Joy. 149 

love. His language is the language of an entirely con- 
secrated and wholly sanctified soul. I think he had gone 
up to the loftiest heights of salvation. He stood upon 
an eminence overlooking the world. The world was 
beneath him. Heaven was above and around him. He 
bathed his pure spirit in the light and glory of God. 
The figs might fail, the olives might fail, the corn and 
the wheat might fail, the flocks and the herds might 
starve and die, and desolation everywhere reign, yet in 
the midst of all this desolation and suffering he could 
exclaim, "I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the 
God of my salvation." Why could he do this ? Because 
the source of his joy was not in any of these earthly 
things. All these things might be swept away ; but God, 
the Fountain of his joy^ remained, and until God Him- 
self were banished from the universe his joy would abide. 

Every fully-saved soul stands upon this lofty moun- 
tain peak, and standing here he may always rejoice. 
Reverses may come ; but God is the same. Financial 
disasters may sweep over the land, loved ones may sicken 
and die, friends prove false and untrue, all around may 
be gloom ; but his joy abides, because it does not depend 
upon any of these things. His joy is in God ; and while 
God remains, his joy will remain. 

2. This joy is the joy of salvation. "I will joy in the 
God of my salvation." 

The prophet knew God to be a complete and perfect 
Savior — able to save to the uttermost, and to save all 
the time and everywhere. 

The result of salvation is joy, always joy. Full sal- 
vation is fullness of joy. 

David cried out, "Restore unto me the joy of Thy 
salvation." (Psalm li, 12.) 



150 The Shining Way. 

David sinned, and he lost his salvation. His joy 
was gone. The gloom of despair settled down upon 
him. The blackness of eternal night enveloped him. 
Hell was open to receive him. How sad is the back- 
slider's state ! How dark, how cheerless, how rayless ! 
This was David's condition. But he cried to God for 
mercy. God heard him, answered him, and restored unto 
him the joy of this great salvation, and permitted him 
to ride upon the high places. Fro'm that time on he 
became a man after God's own heart. His influence for 
good has come down through the ages, and he stands 
forth as an example for all the followers of God. 

The joy of the sanctified under the most dire calam- 
ities has been a wonder to many. This unspeakable joy 
puts upon the face the heavenly shine. We have seen 
this shine on the face of many a sanctified one. ''The 
hard lines of the face had been changed intO' curves of 
pleasing repose ; the eyes had a quiet, sunny look, and 
the voice possessed a note of gladness, and at times an 
exultant ring which impressed the dullest spiritual 
hearer." When Moses came down from the mount his 
face shone. It is said that John Fletcher had on his face 
this heavenly shine. Many went to hear him simply be- 
cause they wanted to look into his shining face, although 
they could not understand a word he uttered. 

Dr. Carradine relates the following: 

''Such a beautiful look the writer, when a young 
preacher, saw on the face of a lady who had been an 
invalid seventeen years. For all that weary time she 
had sat in a large chair, and crippled and stiffened with 
rheumatism, unable to do anything to help herself or 
others, she quietly waited for death to relieve her from 
her acute sufferings. Six years were added to the seven- 



A Way of Joy. 151 

teen, and still, with a patient smile on her lips, and that 
holy, restful light in her face, she waited for God to say 
it was enough and to call her home. Of the hundreds 
who visited her, all marked the pure, unearthly joy which 
filled her, and that was not only seen in her eye and 
heard in her voice, but felt in her presence. The secret 
of the Lord kept her not only uncomplaining, but joyful 
through a quarter of a century of suffering. 

"She finally died, and they buried her sitting in her 
invalid chair, which she had transformed into a throne, 
and in which she haci ruled over many hearts as a 
crowned queen among the daughters of God. She died 
with the sweet, old-time smile on her lips, and was buried 
with it still resting on her face. There she is under the 
ground to-day, sitting in her throne-chair, and waiting 
for the coming of her Lord, whose voice will make her 
spring from the dust to meet Him in the air, and whose 
blessed secret kept her strong, patient, and victorious 
throug'h many years of as great pain and sore trouble 
as almost ever fell to the lot 'of any of God's children." 

Paul says, "BeHeving, we rejoice with joy unspeak- 
able and full 0)f glory." ''Believing," believing what? 
Believing that our sins are all pardoned ; that our sin- 
stained hearts are washed and made white in the blood 
of the Lamb ; that all things here below are working to- 
gether for our good; "that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, 
an ho'use not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
Believing all this, is it any wonder that we should rejoice 
with joy unspeakable and full of glory? 

3. This joy gives the Church power. 

"The joy of the Lord is your strength." (Nehemiah 
viii, 10.) 



152 The Shining Way. 

Joy is power. A joyless Christian is a powerless 
Christian. A joyless Church is a powerless Church. 
On the other hand, a joyful Christian is a Christian of 
power, a joyful Church is a Church of power. 

Alas that we have so many powerless Churches ! 
Why is it? Simply because we have so many joyless 
Christians. There are dead Churches ever}^vhere. The 
members of these Churches have lost their joy, and hence 
have lost their power. 

There is no attraction whatever to the unsaved in a 
long-faced, gloomy, melancholy Christian. Such Chris- 
tians repel, rather than attract. They are poor repre- 
sentatives of the great salvation brought to the world 
by the Son of God. 

A pastor began revival-meetings. A woman eighty 
years old, and a member of the Church all her life, came 
to the altar. Gloom and sadness were upon her face. 
She said to her pastor in a mournful voice, "I have been 
a mourner sixty years." The pastor said, "She evi- 
dently intended to impress me, and she did." Think of a 
soul mourning in the service of God for over half a cen- 
tury ! And think of the harm she had done, the low 
spirits and blue horrors she had generated in others in 
that time ! There is no power in such a Christian. On 
the other hand, there is an attraction and a mighty draw- 
ing power in a bright, cheerful, joyful, singing, shouting 
Christian. Such a Christian is a ^'walking advertisement 
of the goodness of God and the preciousness of the gos- 
pel." O, we like Christians that go singing and shouting 
to the battle ! 

On the day of Pentecost, when the heavenly fire fell 
upon the people and the members of the Church were 
all filled with the Holy Ghost, their hearts bubbled over 



A Way of Joy. 153 

with joy. They talked, they sang, they laughed, they 
shouted, and so great was the excitement that some said 
they were all drunk. Well they were, with new wine 
from the kingdom. The news spread, and in a little 
while, from every part of the city, the people rushed in 
crowds to the temple to witness the strange scene. 

Let the members of the Churches to-day get the same 
joy the Church had then — let them get drunk on the new 
wine from the kingdom, and Pentecost would be re- 
peated. The Churches would not hold the crowds that 
would assemble. 

There is a drawing power in religious joy that is 
really wonderful. 

When pastor at Beatrice some years ago, I began 
revival services. I announced a meeting for afternoon 
as well as for night. The first afternoon there were only 
five or six persons present. One sister made a new con- 
secration to God that afternoon, and got wonderfully 

happy. The news went out that Sister A got very 

happy in the afternoon, and that others too were blessed. 
The next day we had twice the number, and every day 
the numbers increased, until our afternoon meetings al- 
most filled the church, and at night the church would not 
hold the crowds that came. In a short time one hun- 
dred and fifty souls were converted. 

In the same way we began a meeting at York. First, 
the Pentecostal fire fell upon the membership, and their 
hearts began to overflow with the joys of salvation. Then 
the crowds came, and in three years four hundred souls 
were converted. In many other charges we have wit- 
nessed the same scenes. Whenever the members of the 
Church get filled with joy, the crowds are sure to come. 

I once heard Bishop Ames say, "Put salvation's bells 



154 The Shining Way. 

upon the horses, and the people will look out the wdndow 
when the sleigh passes." 

Our observation and experience is, that a joyful 
Church is a victorious^ triumphant, conquering Church. 

The greatest drawing card a Church can possibly 
have is a membership whose hearts constantly overflow 
with the joys of salvation. Such a Church will attract 
the multitudes more surely than the finest and most 
artistic choir in the world. 

Let the members of all the Churches put themselves 
where the Holy Ghost can fill to the brim their hearts 
with joy, and sinners will be attracted to the Church as 
certainly as the needle is attracted to the pole. 

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, of Lin- 
coln, Nebraska, has a membership the most devoted and 
happy, according to the number, of any Church in the 
city. They are the most jolly, laughing, happy, shout- 
ing band of Christians we ever met in any Church. 
About as many white people attend the services of this 
Church as colored people, and sometimes there are more, 
and they are among the most intelligent of our citizens. 
Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Bap- 
tists attend these meetings, and are weekly coming into 
the experience of full salvation. At almost every meeting 
souls are converted and believers are sanctified. The 
members of our white Churches go to these meetings, 
get baptized with the Holy Ghost, and carry back into 
their own Churches the heavenly fire. This colored 
Church is exerting a marvelous influence for good upon 
all the Churches of the city. What gives this Church 
its wondrous power? We answer: Its wondrous joy. 
The hearts of the members of this Church constantly 
overflow with the joys of full salvation, and the members 



A Way of Joy. 155 

of other Churches, in the city and out of the city, are 
catching the overflow. 

The joy of the Lord is the power of this Church. 
Every Church in our land may have this same power. 
Then again, Christian joy will send conviction to the 
hearts of sinners. 

At the Bennett Camp-meeting an unconverted man 
attended an experience-meeting. There were shouts of 
victory and songs of triumph. Joy beamed from every 
face. As he looked into the shining faces of these saved 
ones, and heard their burning words of joy, conviction 
seized him such as he had never felt in all his life before. 
Men may brace themselves against argument, song, and 
preaching, and yet these same men, as we have seen 
them, go down under the genuine rejoicings of a saved 
Church. 

A pastor was holding revival services. He had been 
preaching on sanctification. One night two persons, a 
man and a woman, were sanctified at the same moment. 
The man was on one side of the house, and the woman 
on the other side. They did not know each other; but 
God filled their souls with rapturous laughter. O how 
they laughed ! The congregation was startled. Then a 
great awe settled down upon the assembly, and at night 
the altar was crowded with penitents. There is power 
in religious joy. ''The joy of the Lord is your strength." 

4. The joy of the fully saved is unremitting. It is 
not affected by surroundings ; hence it is perfectly natu- 
ral for the wholly-sanctified soul to rejoice in temptation. 
This may be a surprise to some. "What," says one, 
"shall we rejoice in temptation?" Yes, rejoice in temp- 
tation. James says : "Count it all joy when ye fall into 
diverse temptations : Knowing this, that the trying of 



156 The Shining Way. 

your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her 
perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting 
nothing." (James i, 2-4.) 

Count it all joy, then, when ye fall into these tempta- 
tions, knowing that the result of these temptations, if 
resisted, will be glorious. They will aid in developing in 
you the Christian graces, and in leading you on to the 
heights of the eternal. They will aid in settling and in 
more firmly establishing you upon the rock of eternal 
ages. These temptations are a part of the fiery ordeal 
through which we are called to pass in order that we 
may be fitted for our crown, prepared for our home, and 
made meet for the Master's use. 

But we may rejoice in these fiery temptations, not 
only because they aid in developing in us the Christian 
graces, but because of the glorious outcome. What shall 
the outcome of all these temptations be ? James tells us : 
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation ; for when 
he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life." (James 
i, 12.) That 's the glorious outcome. The crown of 
life, the palm of victory, the never-fading diadem. 

You seek and obtain the blessing of perfect love, and 
if never before you believed in a personal devil, you will 
believe it then. When a man gets full salvation, Satan 
marshals all the battalions of hell, and sends them after 
him. There is nothing In all the wide' world that Satan 
hates so much as he does hoHness, because holiness 
is the most dangerous enemy the empire' of Satan can 
possibly have. So when a believer steps out on the 
broad platform of holiness, gets the experience, and 
tells what wonderful things God has done for him, 
Satan sounds the alarm through all the regions of 
hell, and platoons of demons leap from their hiding- 



A Way of Joy. 157 

places, and come forth at the command of their leader, 
to attack the holy man. And not only does he send his 
own children against the pure in heart, but he stirs 
up all the weak children of God to fight against him 
as well. 

We may now be in the crucible, in the fire. We 
may now be on the field of battle in the thickest of 
the fight, receiving the red-hot missiles from the 
enemy. Still we may rejoice; for by faith we see the 
final victory, we see the last enemy conquered, the last 
foe beneath our feet. We see Satan and his minions 
sinking and forever disappearing from view, and we 
see angels and archangels gathering around us to shout 
our triumph home. 

We shall come forth from the field of battle victors, 
honored and applauded, wreathed with garlands, and 
crowned with immortal glory. V/e shall come forth 
at last with the ransomed hosts, with songs of ever- 
lasting joy upon our heads, and sorrow and sighing shall 
forever flee away. 

5. We may rejoice in sufferings and persecutions. 
''But," says one, ''I do n't like to be evil spoken of." 
True ; that 's according to human nature ; but if evil 
spoken of for Christ's sake we may rejoice. 

The man who is true to Christ always, and the old, 
rugged doctrines of the Bible, now, as in the ancient 
time, will be evil spoken of. Paul says, "All that will 
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 
(2 Tim. iii, 12.) This is as true to-day as it was eighteen 
hundred years ago. The offense of the cross has not 
ceased. If Christians to-day give no quarter to vice 
in the Church and out of it, ''the vicious will give no 
quarter to religion and its followers." I believe there 



158 



The Shining Way. 



are many ministers and members of our Churches that 
would at once seek entire sanctification were it not for 
the odium that would come to them by so doing. I 
speak from experience. Fear of the odium kept me, for 
a long time, from the Canaan of perfect love. I could 
not bear the thought of being called "one of the sancti- 
fied ones." Satan held this club over me for quite a 
while ; but I shall praise God through all time and 
through all the ages of eternity that I finally reached 
the point where I said, "Lord, I will take the' odium 
if You will only give me the experience." Then the 
light came, the peace came, the joy unspeakable and 
full of glory flooded my whole being. 

And now the joy of full salvation outweighs a 
thousand times the odium. I find that the miserable 
people, the fretful people, the peevish, unhappy people, 
are those who oppose the doctrine of perfect love. 
Those who enjoy it are the joyful, happy, triumphant, 
conquering ones. 

The three' Hebrew children were never so happy in 
their lives as they were when in the fiery furnace, the 
form of the Fourth being with them. They wxre calm, 
peaceful, happy, and triumphant as they walked amid 
the fire without a hair being singed or a thread upon 
their garments scorched by the flames. The king and 
those on the outside were the frightened, startled, miser- 
able, and unhappy ones. Look at them as they peer 
into the furnace. I can almost see the king's hair 
stand on end, and his eyes start from their sockets, as 
he cries out, "Did we not cast three men bound in the 
miidst of the fire? Lo, I see four men loose, walking 
in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt ; and the 



A Way of Joy. 159 

form of the fourth is like the Son of God." (Dan. iii, 
24, 25.) 

Methinks Daniel never passed a happier night in his 
life than he did when he pillowed his head upon the 
mane of the old lion, and around him the savage beasts 
of prey lay quiet and harmless as kittens. 

While Daniel was happy, and slept sweetly and 
peacefully during the whole night, the king, in his 
palace, was the miserable and unhappy one. Sleep left 
him, and all night long, with an agonized heart, he' 
paced to and fro the floor of his room. And so it al- 
ways has been, and so it always will be. It is not the 
perseciited that are unhappy, but the persecutors. 
''Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and perse- 
cute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, 
for My sake." (Matt, v, 11.) 

The first apostles rejoiced that they were counted 
worthy to suffer shame for the' name of the Lord Jesus. 
The disciples rejoiced while their tormentors raged and 
gnashed their teeth. "Stephen had a better time than 
the' howling mob who stoned him to death." He fell 
amid a shower of stones from his enemies ; but his 
face was that of an angel, and his pathway to the throne 
was that of a returning conqueror from the field of 
battle covered with the laurels of victory. 

It is not the persecuted that have sorrow. It is the 
other fellows. The persecuted rejoice; the persecutors 
have the twinging conscience, the condemnation, the 
bitter remorse. 

But, says one, "You say it is the privilege of the 
Christian to rejoice always, under all circumstances, and 
at all times?" Yes. "Then you say the Christian need 



i6o The Shining Way. 

never feel sad or sorrowful?" No, we do not say so. 
The Bible does not say so. The Bible says, "Rejoice 
in the Lord always." You may feel sad as you see 
}'our friends unsaved and going dow^n to ruin, and yet, 
at the' same time, you may '^rejoice in the Lord" from 
the consciousness of your own wonderful salvation. 

You may feel very sad as you follow your loved ones 
to the grave, and yet, right in the midst of your deep- 
est grief and sorrow, you may rejoice in the Lord. 

A pastor relates the following: 

''The writer remembers a Christian woman, for a 
long time a member of his Church, on whom there 
suddenly fell the greatest sorrow that can come to a 
loving heart. It was the death of her husband, the 
companion of half a century of happy wedded life. She 
was a quiet, practical woman, with no natural emotion 
or sentiment in her temperament. But she had received 
the Holy Spirit years before, and in a very calm, consist- 
ent way had been living a very devoted life. Hastening 
to her home, he expected to find her plunged in deep 
distress ; but she met him at the door with radiant 
face and overflowing joy. 'My dear pastor,' she cried, 
'my family all think thait I am wrong to feel as I do, 
for I can not shed a tear, and my heart is so happy 
that I can not understand it. God has filled me with 
such a peace as passes all understanding, and I really 
can not help rejoicing and praising Him all the time. 
What shall I do?' Of course I told her to rejoice with 
all her heart, and thank God that she cx>uld rejoice in such 
an hour. It was indeed the peace that passeth all un- 
derstanding. There was no human cause for it. It 
was the deep artesian well flowing from the heart of 
God." 



A Way of Joy. i6i 

There are a thousand things that will bring sorrow 
to the heart; and yet, In the midst of all these, we 
may rejoice in the Lord with a joy that is mispeakable 
and full of glory. 

Paul uses the paradoxical language, "As sorrowful 
yet always rejoicing." That is the language of every 
one who has gone up to the lofty mountain-peak of full 
salvation. When perfect love fills the heart to the brim, 
it brings heaven down to earth, and thrills the soul 
with a joy no language can describe. 

How it is that any one can, by word or pen, say 
anything against a doctrine that brings to its votaries 
such joy, is a mystery. The only possible way we can 
account for this opposition is, that it comes from the 
carnal mind which has never been eradicated by the 
sanctifying power of Divine grace. 

Joy that is derived from any source whatever, save 
from the religion of Jesus Christ, is uncertain and of 
short duration. 

The happiness of every one out of Christ is only a 
question of time. In a little while it will be gone. If 
men seek happiness in money, and millions do — money 
is the God that millions worship — their happiness is un- 
certain, ''for riches make themselves wings and fly away." 
Their money gone, their happiness will be gone. 

Only a short time ago, a rich banker in Illinois in a 
speculation lost all he had. His property, furniture from 
his house, everything, was taken to pay his debts. Cha- 
grined, mortified, and humiliated, he left his home and 
friends, and fled to Texas, a miserable, wretched man. 
He had sought his joy in money, and when it left him 
his joy left him. 

When Vanderbilt, the great railroad king of America, 
II 



1 62 The Shining Way. 

was dying, he rebuked his pastor for not having done 
his duty. He said to him, "You ought to have crowded 
rehgion upon me." During a long Hfe he had sought his 
joy in his wealth, and when he saw that he and his wealth 
must separate he felt his joy leaving him. 

If men seek happiness in position in society or the 
honors of the world, when they lose these, then their 
joy is gone. 

If men seek happiness in anything save the religion 
of Jesus Christ, their happiness vvill be of short duration, 
and will soon pass away, and sooner or liter sore dis- 
appointment and bitter sorrow and remorse will come. 

If, then,, you would have joy that nothing earthly 
can afifect, that will remain when everything earthly is 
swept away, you must trust wholly in the Lord Jesus — 
you must follow Him fully. 

Salvation from sin is joy. Full salvation is fullness 
of joy. The joy of the fully saved is not affected by re- 
verses. It remains no matter what reverses come, be- 
cause it is in the Lord. If in the Lord, then the Lord 
must be banished from the universe ere His joy can be 
taken away. His wealth may take wings and fly away, 
his friends may die, financial disasters may sweep over 
the land, drouths may devastate the country, the cattle 
and the hogs may die ; but amid all these his joy remains, 
because its source is the unchangeable and eternal Je- 
hovah. 

He goes singing and rejoicing through the world, 
he goes singing and rejoicing down into the grave, he 
goes singing and rejoicing up to the throne, and he will 
go singing and rejoicing through all the ages of eternity. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
THE SHINING WAY A WAY OF POWER. 

HOLINESS is power. A holy Church is a Church 
of power. A holy ministry is a ministry of power. 
Eliminate froim the pulpit holiness, and you have a 
powerless pulpit. Eliminate from the pew holiness, and 
you have a powerless pew. 

Holiness imparts to the speaker that strange and mys- 
terious influence called "unction." Without this unction, 
preaching, praying, exhorting — all are powerless. 

A legend is told of two emissaries from the Evil 
One who were sent out by his Satanic Majesty to preach 
if they could get a chance. They were disguised as men. 
One Sunday they went to Church as usual. A sudden 
illness prevented the minister from getting to his pulpit. 
The congregation had gathered^ so one 'of the deacons 
arose and asked if there was any clergyman present who 
would take the pulpit, as they did not like to dismiss the 
congregation immediately. One of the messengers from 
Satan stepped forward and offered to preach. He took 
for his subject, "The redemption of the world through 
the blood of Jesus Christ." When he rejoined his com- 
panion he was asked how he dared to. preach on that 
subject; nothing could do more injury to their kingdom 
than that truth. His reply was, "No harm has been 
done ; there was no unction." 

It is possible for ministers of the gospel to preach 
Sabbath after Sabbath without the "unction." Many do'^ 

163 



164 The Shining Way. 

and so the people come and go from our Churches un- 
changed. 

If the minister has it, the people will see and feel it, 
and will be led to earnestly desire and seek the same 
great treasure. 

Mrs. Margaret Bottome, one of the purest and sweet- 
est writers in all Methodism, relates the following: 

"I shall never forget the time when one of the sweet- 
est women of our Methodism was so hungry for a pure 
heart, a full salvation, that she could hardly eat or sleep, 
and she passed out of her tent at a camp-meeting to hear 
the morning sermon. The subject was, 'Christ a com- 
plete Savior.' Before the preacher reached the close of 
the sermon she said to herself, with her heart breaking 
with longing, 'O, will he say that he has found Him a 
complete Savior, that he knows it all by experience?' 
The sermon was ended, and then the minister, laying his 
hand on his hearty said, 'He has been and is a complete 
Savior to this poor heart oi mine;' and in that moment 
the woman, whose name was as ointment poured forth 
for years after that, apprehended Christ by faith as her 
perfect Savior, and was filled with the Spirit. 

"O what changes would take place in Churches if 
the constant preaching to the people of what they ought 
to be and do (which they know quite as well as the min- 
ister) should give place to seeing the minister filled with 
the Spirit, having received the anointing from the Holy 
One, and showing it by a joy that would make every one 
hungry for his joy ! For it is true that the people know 
a good thing when they see it, if they do not when they 
hear about it. 

"I seem at this time to hear a Spirit voice saying, 
'Will the candidates for baptism [the baptism of the 



A Way of Power. 16=: 

Holy Ghost and of fire] now come forward [to this un- 
seen altar] ?' Who will respond, 'Here am I, Lord ; O 
baptize me. Give me the unction from the Holy One !' " 

Christianity is supernatural in its origin, and by this 
same supernatural power is it perpetuated from age 
to age. 

John Wesley has this supernatural power. It came 
upon him first when his "heart was strangely warmed," 
and still more wonderful when, after a night of prayer, 
he, with others, said, *'It was a Pentecostal seasoin in- 
deed." 

The founders of American Methodism had the same 
marvelous experiences. They believed that the Pente- 
costal power given to the first preachers of Christianity 
was needed by them, and would be given to them on the 
same conditions as at first. They sought and received 
the baptism of power just as the one hundred and twenty 
did in the upper room at Jerusalem. Our fathers all 
along the past have had this wondrous power. 

Dr. William McKinley, in an article in the Christian 
Advocate, says : 

''It was the privilege of this writer in his youth to 
hear from the lips of one of these fathers the story of 
the process by which he obtained this power. Peter 
Akers, of Illinois, was one of the mighty men of Meth- 
odism in the early part of this century and well on toward 
its close, for he lived to be ninety-six years of age, and 
retained much of his mental and spiritual vigor almost to 
the last. He had studied law, been admitted to the bar, 
and had as good worldly prospects as any young man at 
that time in thalt profession. But God found him, con- 
verted him, and called him to the ministry, and he for- 
sook all to follow Christ. His conviction, earnestness. 



1 66 The Shining Way. 

and consecration must have been deep and strong to 
relinquish the lucrative and honorable profession of law 
for the privations, perils, and social humiliation of the 
Methodist itinerancy of that time. His preaching from 
the first was popular; his commanding talents attracted 
crowds ; but there was no converting power in it. He 
saw men of inferior talents and attainments in possession 
of this power turning others to righteousness, while peo- 
ple only admired his preaching, but were not convicted 
or converted by it. 'This,' said he, 'troubled me, and 
made me sick in body and in mind. I was greatly de- 
pressed and sorely tempted by m.y inefficiency and failure. 
When my quarterly-meeting came, my presiding elder — 
John Sale — preached with power on the sufficiency of 
Christ for all our spiritual need. I drank in the sermon 
as a thirsty land the rain, and at its close announced a 
hymn on the same subject, and while it was being sung 
said to myself, "I can, I will, I do take the Lord Jesus 
Christ as my perfect Savior in all things, now and for- 
ever." As soon as I had said it there came upon me an 
overwhelming sense of the fullness and sufficiency of 
Christ, so that I could not speak or stand or sit, but vras 
compelled to go to my room and lie down, lost and swal- 
lowed up in the infinite grace and glory of God. I felt 
that the power working in me was the power of Christ's 
resurrection, and could raise all the dead from Adam 
to the last man that died. In some inefifable way I was 
conscious of the presence of the Triune God, Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, and realized their relation to human 
redemption in a way that filled me with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory. After the vision came abiding peace 
and power, so that, under my first sermon, forty persons 
were awakened and most of them converted, and for 



A Way of Power. 167 

many years, under almost every sermon, similar results 
appeared. Nearly half a century has passed since then, 
but the power of that baptism abides with me still.' " 

Many have this power to-day. Holiness is in the 
world and the Church to stay. It is Divine. It is heaven- 
planted, heaven-nurtured, heaven-defended, heaven-hon- 
ored, and it will be heaven-rewarded. It is in the world 
to stay until the last trump shall sound to call a sleeping 
world to judgment. 

When that grand old man. Poly carp, Bishop of 
Smyrna, was obliged to leave the city in consequence of 
the increasing persecutions, he went with his faithful 
disciple, Crescens, to the region in the vicinity of Smyrna. 
In the cool of the evening the bishop was walking under 
the shade of the magnificent trees which stood in front 
of his rural abode. Here he found Crescens sitting under 
an oak-tree, leaning his head on his hands and weeping. 
Then the old man said, "My son, why weepest thou?" 
Crescens Hfted up 'his head, and said : ''Shall I not mourn 
and weep when I think of the kingdom of truth on 
earth? Tempests and storms are gathering round, and 
will destroy it in its beginning. Many of its adherents 
have become apostates, and have denied and abused the 
truth, proving that unworthy men may confess it with 
their lips, though their hearts are far from it. This fills 
my soul with sorrow, and my eyes with tears." Then 
Polycarp smiled and answered : "My dear son, the king- 
dom of Divine truth is like unto a tree that a countryman 
reared in his garden. He set the tree secretly and quietly 
in the ground and left it ; the seed put forth leaves, and 
the young tree grew up among weeds and thorns. Soon 
the tree reared itself above them, and the weeds died, 
because the shadow of the branches overcame them. The 



1 68 The Shining Way. 

tree grew, and the winds blew on it and shook it; but 
its roots clung firmer and firmer to the ground, taking 
hold of the rocks downwards, and its branches reached 
unto heaven. Thus the tempest served to increase the 
firmness and strength of the tree. When it grew up 
hig'her, and its shadow spread further, then the thorns 
and the weeds grew again around the tree ; but it heeded 
them not in its loftiness ; there it stood in calm, peaceful 
grandeur — a tree of God." 

So with holiness, this doctrine of the saints made 
perfect in love. Once deeply imbedded in the heart, 
richly experienced in the soul, joyfully pra.cticed in the 
life, it is there to stay. Satan may rally all his forces, 
mass all his batteries, hurl all his engines of war against 
it ; but amid all it remains unmoved. 

The doctrine of entire sanctification wrought in the 
heart by the Holy Ghost is Divine. You can't destroy 
it. You can't talk it down, nor write it down, nor preach 
it down, nor ridicule it down. The weeds and thorns 
of sin and formality may gather about it, and endeavor 
to smother and choke it out; but it will arise like the 
majestic tree, and, towering far above these puny weeds 
and thorns^ its broad and spreading branches will over- 
shadow them all. 

This doctrine seems to be a thorn in the flesh of some 
leading divines. They are troubled. They don't know 
what to do with it. It is the most troublesome question 
in all the theological world for them to handle. 

This Bible doctrine is in the pulpit and in the pew. 
It will not down. It is opposed, misrepresented, ridi- 
culed, and still it lives. I think it is antagonized to-day 
as never before. Never were such efforts made to ex- 
plain it away and crush it out, and yet "this mighty 



A Way of Power. 169 

giant is as youthful and vigorous as ever." It can't die. 
It is Divine. It hias the Hfe of God in it. *'It may be 
crushed to earth, but it will rise again, for the eternal 
years of God belong to it." 

What is needed to speedily send the gospel upon the 
wings of the wind to every benighted inhabitant of our 
lost world is holiness. Holinesis will make the Church 
omnipotent. A holy Church is invincible. No power in 
earth or hell can stand before a Church robed in the 
habiliments of purity. 

The most powerful m'eetings we have ever attended 
have been holiness camp-meetings. At the Bennet 
Camp-meeting a few years ago an infidel came upon the 
ground. He remained only a few hours. He came and 
stood near the pulpit, looked into the faces of the saved 
men and wo'men that were there, and as he listened to 
their burning testimonies his face became pale, he turned 
away and left the ground, and as he passed out the gate 
he was overheard to say to a friend, *'My God, I wish I 
were a Christian !" What he saw and heard during the 
few hours he was there was an argument in favor of the 
truth of the Christian religion mightier than he had ever 
heard from any pulpit or read in any book. Another 
infidel came on the ground, and he had not been there 
twenty-four hours until he was gloriously converted. 
Over the entrance to the ground was a large canvas, on 
which were the words, ^'Holiness unto the Lord." When 
that converted infidel aro-se to give in his testimony, he 
said : "When I passed under that canvas on which were 
the words, 'Holiness unto the Lord,' I was convicted as 
never before. I felt that unless I was saved soon I would 
be lost forever. O, how glad I am that I came to this 
holiness camp-meeting !" 



170 The Shining Way. 

If every member of every Church were holy in heart 
and Hfe, then the world would believe. Atheists would 
believe, infidels would believe, skeptics would believe ; 
all classes would believe. They would come by the tens 
and the hundreds and the thousands to the altars of our 
Churches for salvation. 

The hindrances that are in the way of the speedy 
conquest of this world to Christ are not on the outside 
of the Church. It is not atheism, it is not infidehty, it is 
not skepticism that stands in the way of the world's con- 
version. 

If every member of Christ's militant Church were 
holy in heart, word, and act, then every clog in the wheels 
of our Zion would be removed, and the Church would 
move out on her grand mission of evangelizing the 
world as the lightning express-train sweeps from ocean 
to ocean. 

Just a little while before He left the world, our 
Savior made a very remarkable prayer. That remarkable 
prayer you will find recorded in the seventeenth chapter 
of John. "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word 
is truth. For their sakes I sanctify Myself that they also 
might be sanctified through the truth." This part of 
this wonderful prayer was for His apostles. His first 
chosen ministers. Having prayed for His ministers, 
those whom He had called, commissioned, and sent 
forth to preach His gospel, that they might be sanctified, 
then He enlarges the compass of His prayer, "Neither 
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall be- 
lieve on Me through their word, that they all may be one 
as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee ; that they also 
may be one in us ; that the world may believe that Thou 
hast sent Me." This prayer was for all believers through- 



A Way of Power. 171 

out all the world, throughout all ages, down to the end 
of time. 

Next to His last recorded prayer on earth, in full 
view of Gethsemane and Calvary, Christ prayed, not for 
the unconverted, not for a world lost in sin, but for the 
sanctification of His ministers and believers throughout 
all ages. His agonizing prayer was that they all might 
be sanctified and made perfect in one, even as Christ and 
the Father are one ; that there might be a bond of union, 
a bond of faith, a bond of sympathy and love binding 
together all Christians with a tie as strong and sweet 
and tender as the union existing between the Father and 
the Son. 

Why did He want this? He tells us. "That the 
world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." When all 
believers are wholly sanctified, then this unity of faith 
and love will prevail among all God's people, and when 
the glad day of this glorious union shall come, then the 
world will believe. 

In this marvelous prayer Christ had His eye and 
heart upon a lost world. 

The short cut to the salvation of the teeming millions 
of the unsaved on earth is through a sanctified Church. 
When, therefore, the ministers and members of the 
Church are all holy, then shall our Savior's prayer be 
answered, and we shall be at the door of the whole 
world's salvation. Blessed Triune Jehovah, speed this 
glorious and long-prayed-for day! 




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